Wordless Play "Inhale:Exhale" Opens at Theatre on Gertrudes Street, Promising Color and Sound
The Theatre on Gertrudes Street in Riga is staging "Inhale:Exhale," a wordless production by author and performer Sandija Dovgane built around color and sound.
A new production titled "Inhale:Exhale" (in the original Russian, "Вдох:Выдох") is being staged at the Theatre on Gertrudes Street in Riga. Before the show begins, theatre director Maija Pavlova addresses the audience with reassuring words, acknowledging that some spectators worry the performance will contain no dialogue at all — but urging them not to worry, since it will be full of colors and sounds.
As the audience climbs into the hall, they are met with an unusual sight: a curtain made of plastic film. Facing it, already seated with her back to the audience, is the show's author and sole performer, Sandija Dovgane.
A reviewer describes the piece as a fragile world, and as a performance one would wish to watch again — this time in reverse order. Exactly how a wordless production manages to communicate with the audience and touch their thoughts and emotions is left as an intriguing puzzle, one that only reveals itself as the show unfolds.
The production suggests that theatre can speak to an audience without traditional dialogue, relying instead on visual and sound elements, along with the presence of a single performer on stage.
