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Baltic bard treds boards

To speak of Latvian theatre in the early 21st-century is to speak of the acclaimed director and theatre maker Alvis Hermanis and his company, the New Riga Theatre.

Kaspars Znotinš plays Latvian poet Imants Ziedonis at the Baltic Theatre Festival Photograph: Gints Malderis
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So it was at the recent Baltic Theatre Festival, held in the Latvian capital, Riga, from November 19-23. In fact, so disappointing was the other (often shallow, postmodern and trashy) work on offer in this showcase of new theatre from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, that one could have been forgiven for concluding that the programme was designed with the sole purpose of promoting Hermanis’s piece, Ziedonis And The Universe.