Transferring a specific story based on real events to the stage in the form of documentary theater is nothing new. However, if everyone involved in the act is singing, it’s a completely different story. There are not many such cases in Latvian theatre. But that’s not the only reason why Dirty Deal Teatro the latest production seems so important and exciting. In the title Alphas is a reference to a specific elite special unit, but this word undoubtedly also carries an ironic connotation – were those who served in this unit, who chose to become criminals, and their accomplices “alpha males”?
The term “musical theater” established by theorist and dramatist Evarts Melalkšņis (with the caveat that it is a derivative of the German language) has been used to denote performances based on musical material, but does not really fit the definition of either an opera or a musical, as they are based on different foundations. For the show Alphaswhich composer Edgars Raginskis, libretto author Jānis Balodis and director Valters Sīlis have prepared for us this fall, the specific genre designation was chosen deliberately and also completely suits.
How you look at it
Let’s take a look at Wikipedia: “The shooting in Jēkabpils took place on the morning of January 25, 2011, when five persons, among whom four were State Police officers (two officers from the special Alfa and two from the Tukuma district), conducted gaming halls Phoenix robbery in Jēkabpilis and tried to run away from the scene, however, after entering a dead end, they were caught. During the robbery and subsequent escape, security guards and several police officers were injured, while police officer Andris Znotiņš was shot. The robbers tried to escape in a car Chrysler Voyager, the stolen money was found in it.”
“What happened was that a police officer had been shot and other police officers had done it. I felt like I had shot someone myself. That’s how scary it was. That was the feeling everyone in our system had that day. A painful, desperate and sad feeling of powerlessness,” in his political memoirs The girl with the gun on the roof (publishing house Latvian media, 2024) writes the then Minister of Internal Affairs Linda Mūrniece. In the book, which came out relatively recently and is still on the news shelves of stores, a separate chapter is dedicated to the Jēkabpils tragedy, in which the author focuses more on her personal feelings and opinion about the journalists who demanded her resignation. You could probably write a play or a libretto for a musical theater performance from this point of view. Jānis Balodis has looked at the specific event quite alienated and has not lost his emotions. The composer and the director also follow this intonation.
“Already since 2004 / Latvia was driving too fast. / There were no helmets, brakes, seat belts. / They just said – pedals to the floor, / Because we are still lagging behind Europe! / I think that now everyone in Latvia understands the term / Overheating. / And it will be remembered for a long, long time / Many generations to come,” the libretto opens in a text assigned to the radio, but sung by Emil in a captivating tenor voice in the performance Kivlenieks, includes both a description of the situation and quite a lot of irony, especially if during the song one of the photos shown to the audience is a portrait of the prime minister of the fat years, Aigars Kalvīš. It, like many other pieces of physical evidence, will be pinned to the police station board to reconstruct the particular crime.
The creators of the show highlight the dissatisfaction of the people of that time with the often desperate situation caused by the crisis, when the burden of loans became unbearable due to a decrease in wages. At the same time, this is no excuse for committing a crime, and as shown in the show, the honest police officer who died in a shootout during the arrest also had credit. At least for the policeman Atis (not Andris), who works in the show, even though the basis is documentary, the names of the characters have been changed, giving the opportunity to interpret the biographies more freely. The name of the gaming hall has also been changed, but Griffa to see in the emblem Phoenix typefaces are not complicated. They are marked in order, just to understand how this gang of five people was formed and how the events unfolded sequentially. Some stiffen, others, unnamed, have also given up. How to plan a crime in the hope that everything will be fine. And how the crime itself happens. The fact that the text, at the same time laconic and concrete, from time to time also hits emotionally, can be missed in the tension of the performance. Now, with the permission of the author, I have received a copy, I read the text of the already shot Ata and my heart sinks: “I am surrounded. / Where I lay, / I see / Eighty-three candles. / There is still a sound, / I can no longer hear. / It is receding. / Bebru Street near Daugava, / Jēkabpils is moving away. / I can’t hear anymore.”
In the resignation-filled epilogue of the play, with the repetition of the refrain “snow falls and leaves”, Jānī Balodī wakes up as a dramatist of the documentary theater, to which he wants to add several more events related to crimes committed by policemen or inactions in the form of a retelling. However, in a show where it’s all sung, these additions sound tacky and dilute the mood of the particular story rather than enhance it.
Less is more
The stage space proposed by the artist Uģs Bērziņas has only chairs and a board to pin photos to. This helps to maintain the dynamism, as director Valters Silis and choreographer Edvards Kurmins model the mise-en-scenes and vary the locations of the action. The music of Edgars Raginskis in combination with the sound design of Kārļas Tones in the relatively small Dirty Deal Teatro constantly maintains the emotional tension on the playing field, offering quite catchy tunes, for example, in the theme of the casino, as well as in the already mentioned opening and closing episodes of the show. There is no expanded accompanying group, there is percussionist Ernests Mediņš. The poetic load is given by the lights of Nick Tsiprus, and overall this is an example of less is more – the chosen means are enough to keep the viewer in constant attention.
The five actors are vocally and acting stable. Emils Kivlenieks delights not only with his charming tenor timbre, which is also purposefully used in an ironic accent, but also with his precise acting. The baritone of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet, Armands Siliņš-Bergmanis, no less self-deprecatingly plays a “real old man” who organizes a crime, but still gets it done. It is pleasing that Aleksandrs Bricis, a student of the Latvian Academy of Culture, has also organically joined the ensemble. On the other hand, Mārtiņš Gūtmanis and Artis Drozdovas have more, so to speak, a support function, being part of the overall ensemble.
Special forces are also revealed in Linda Mūrniece’s memoirs Alfa fate. “Alfai just taken away Alphas name, and it remained just a special unit. All those serving there were subjected to various tests, and a gloomy picture was revealed that a large number of them were not psychologically prepared, because the selection was mainly based on physical abilities, and the commander made a choice based on them. Twelve police officers were fired as useless, many left on their own because they couldn’t live with what happened.”
The brightest examples of typologically similar music theater performances seen so far were more dedicated to the world of women – we should mention the opera by Līnas Lapelīte, shown ten years ago in Riga and still performed in Lithuania Have a Good Day! with a company of ten supermarket cashiers Operamania in the production as well Gambler’s Night this year’s award-nominated performance by Barbara Lehtna with music by Liva Bluma Monstera Deliciosa in Gertrude Street Theatre. Alphas gives a strong, exciting and perhaps discussion-provoking contribution with masculine self-irony.
Alphas
Dirty Deal Teatro 26, 27.XI, 3., 4.XII at 19
Tickets Ticket paradises EUR 18 in the network
Source: www.diena.lv
