I Had a Cousin (Mul oli nõbu) – performance and meeting

Time when criminals ruled Baltic countries seems to be a thing of the past. Nowadays it looks like these criminals have legalized their operations and went into legitimate business, but it might not be so.

“I HAD A COUSIN” is co-created by director Valters Sīlis and playwright Rasa Bugavičute – Pēce. Rasa is half Latvian half Lithuanian. This is a story about her and her Lithuanian cousin – Deimantas. They grew up together. She grew up to be a writer. He became one of the leading figures in the Kaunas mafia. He was killed in 2015, at the age of 27, by two Estonian hitmen.

This is a very personal story, told from the perspective of Rasa who observes how her cousin gets more and more involved in organized crime. The aim of the performance is an attempt to understand the social circumstances and personal motivations that lead someone to a decision to become the king of the world. Even at the price of a very shortened lifespan.

Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce – a playwright and screenwriter. She studied theatre, film and television drama, as well as cultural management at the Latvian Academy of Culture and literature at the University of Lipawa. She also improved her knowledge and skills during master classes with teachers from the USA, Croatia, Spain, Sweden and other countries. Since 2010 she has been working as a playwright, regularly collaborating with directors from major Latvian national and independent theaters. Rasa received the 2012 Spēlmaņu nakts Award for Playwright of the Year for her play “Gals” (“The End”) at the National Theatre in Riga. She has been nominated for this award several times, including in the 2018/2019 season for her play “Liepāja-Latvijas galvaspilsēta” (“Liepāja, the capital of Latvia”) at the Liepāja Theatre and for her drama “Zenta Mauriņa. Dokumentālie sapņi” (“Zenta Mauriņa: Documentary Dreams”). She has written scripts for large-scale concerts and plays, including “Lec, Saulīte” (“The Rising Sun”; 2014) and “Abas malas” (“Both Sides”; 2018), as well as several feature films and TV series. Since 2017 she has been collaborating with director Sergei Zemliansky, writing librettos for the Theatre Without Words, whose productions have been staged in Latvia, Russia, Israel, and other countries. Since 2015 Rasa has been working as a playwright at Liepāja Theatre, as well as teaching drama at the Liepāja University and organizing international theater workshops for young professionals.