International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus is the greatest performing arts forum in Latvia, taking place bi-annually since 1995. In its seventh season, Homo Novus takes over the streets and stages of Riga, offering twelve theatrical performances, films, artists' forums, and workshops, and inviting you to broaden your minds by getting to know our ingenious Homo Novus artists who tell it like it is...here and now.
For the first time in the history of the Homo Novus festival, audiences will be treated to two internationally collaborative premières - the co-creations of guest artists and more than twenty Latvian directors, actors, and students. Working together with Valmiera Theatre actors, German director Florian von Hoermann launches the festival with his provocative première of Boris Vian's surreal novel, Froth on the Daydream. In Argentinian director Mariano Pensotti's installation of everyday minutiae, La Marea, set in the courtyards and storefronts of Upīša Pasāža, stagecraft gets up and goes downtown, seeking out unsuspecting passers-by.
A history of present-day theatre could not be written without mentioning the magus of Italian theatre, Romeo Castellucci, the infinitely exquisite puppetmaster, Rezo Gabriadze, from Georgia, and the forever-fluctuating Finn, Kristian Smeds. Whether it be Castellucci's often ruthless visions, sprung from the depths of the subconscious; Gabriadze's impelling miniature world, standing in defence of every living creature; or Smeds's fusion of tragedy and wit, their productions—under the banner of Contemporary Theatre Classics—are powerful proof that “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” (Arthur Schopenhauer)
The Fresh Look bill offers an intriguing opportunity to spend a night together with the Gob Squad artists in a five-hour theatrical marathon; to follow the fate of a Lebanese man—who has disappeared without trace—through a relentless stream of media scrutiny (under the direction of Rabih Mroué); recall childhood naïveté with the help of the mythical “once upon...” (Krõõt Juurak); or take part in a lively exploration of the relationship between movement, metre, and music (Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion).
We look forward to meeting you at the film sessions at Cinema K. Suns and Cinema Riga and seeing you at the informal discussions with festival artists at the Festival Centre, hosted by the café, Andalūzijas suns, this year. The festival is a unique puzzle, pieced together to create a whole, and yet it stands unfinished, until the moment that a spectator comes in and enters their own 'piece': a reaction or impression, critiques or kudos...