Theatre play

A cow bewitched by an evil neighbor gives black milk. Nevertheless, it can be drunk, so they say. Changes in the countryside, the loss of idyll, closeness to nature, folk beliefs and wisdom of ordinary people come up. The farmers’ way of life has always been closely linked to their animals and their homeland. Today the villages and farms stand empty. It is about Latvia. Memories of Latvia.

For two years, Alvis Hermanis and the actors of the Jaunais Rīgas teātris (New Riga Theater) researched rural areas. The play »Melnais piens« (»Black Milk«) is a scenic collection full of beautiful, rough, touching, whimsical and also wicked stories about peasant women who turn into cows. Latvia is a member of the European Union, whose regulations pose an existential threat to rural life. The disappearance of dairy farming is synonymous with the dangers of our times, as is the play’s emblematic title.

Alvis Hermanis was born in 1965 in Riga, where he also received his acting training. After graduating in 1988, he worked as an actor in films and on the theater stage, starting in 1993 at the Jaunais Rīgas teātris, whose artistic director he took over in 1997 and still holds today. He is one of the most important directors in the world, and his plays are regularly performed at international festivals throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as in Korea and New Zealand. He has also directed in Berlin, Frankfurt/Main, Moscow, Vienna and Salzburg. He made guest appearances at euro-scene Leipzig with »Tālāk«(»Onward«) in 2004 and »Sonja« in 2010.