no30
SHIP OF FOOLS
SMUUL/OJASOO
"You as well as myself were brought here by our daily bread which in this evil world urges man much more effectively than any whip could ever do. Maybe one man in a hundred sails the sea for his own pleasure. But us has the Lord in his utmost mercy not given this pleasure. Our destiny and our lot is this ship, her masts and her yards and her steering wheel, the work that must be done, the storm and the burning sun, and the doldrums and the order of the captain that everyone must obey as if it came from the beard of God himself." So speaks the Wild Captain, a captain without papers leading a ship full of fools.
"Ship of Fools", a play by the Estonian writer Juhan Smuul, is a witty, epic and archetypal story about people who always sail away from their home, always so as to arrive home. The dramaturgical suspense and the psychological framework of human relations is as tense as the thread of a nobleman's shirt, the jokes and the way the characters speak as juicy as a properly roasted fish. The ship that sails to the ocean is full of colourful characters, of exuberance and songs, of laughter and swing. And then the ship that hardly stays together at all, is on the sea for long weeks: the initial aim is long forgotten, tensions arise, everyone tries to get hold of the steering wheel and turn it in whatever direction. In the midst of an immense expanse of water sways a ship full of fools. Who should one believe? Who should one look to? Whereto forwards now? And why forwards?
A joint production with the Finnish theatre company Jalostamo².
Author Juhan Smuul
Direction Tiit Ojasoo
Light Design Petri Tuhkanen (Jalostamo²)
Musical design Jakob Juhkam
On stage Marika Vaarik, Eva Koldits, Rea Lest, Gert Raudsep, Rasmus Kaljujärv, Simeoni Sundja, Jörgen Liik, Ragnar Uustal and Anna Lipponen (Jalostamo²)
Premiere September 7th 2018 at Theatre NO99