Birute Mar “MOTHER'S MILK“ (SOVIET MILK) performance based on Nora Ikstena’s novel

The play “Soviet Milk” is based on the novel by the well-known contemporary Latvian writer Nora Ikstena. It is the story of a mother and daughter in Soviet Latvia during the period of 1969-1989 and the history of the country’s awakening from the Soviet stagnation to independence. Everything is very recognisable: the Soviet school, the suffocating ruthlessness of the system, the sense of impending freedom… When looking back to the not-so-distant past, it raises fundamental questions about the state and choices of our contemporary society.

Birute Mar plays two roles in the play – mother and daughter. The mother is a doctor, the daughter of an exile, who is deprived of everything by the Soviet authorities: not only her professional future and identity, but also the joy and meaning of life. Her daughter is the opposite of her mother, naturally full of life. This is a story about the emotional wall which a mother builds against her daughter – for love and protection. It is about resentment as salvation; about an environment where everything turns into poison – even breast milk

Translated from Latvian to Lithuanian by Laura Laurusaite.

Adaptated and directed by BIRUTE MAR

Choreographer and assistant director – SIGITA MIKALAUSKAITE

Scenographer – INDRE PACESAITE

Music composed and selected by ANTANAS KUCINSKAS

Video projections by KAROLIS BRATKAUSKAS

Lighting designer – AUDRIUS JANKAUSKAS

ROLES PLAYED BY:

Mother, Daughter – Birute Mar

Singer – Virginija Skirmante