Community performance „and then there was us“

“and then there was us” is a walking performance on Vooremägi (Uniküla, Tartumaa). The procession features horse carriages, live musicians and local stories turned into poems, songs, and dances.

For more than a year the creative team of INITIUM foundation has been visiting Kastre parish libraries, youth centers, schools, forests, meadows and swamps, the homes and saunas of locals, listening to what these people want to share about themselves and how they feel about being together. Maybe even more specifically – they have been discovering together with the locals if there is such a thing as “togetherness” and if there is, where can it be found? These answers felt like different streams and paths to take, each of them leading to an opposite destination. The performance might be seen as a series of eruptions of those answers, feelings, and thoughts. The audience is invited to catch them, swim through them, or just go with the flow, even if it runs underground.
The show will be held, performed, and delivered by the best people (and horses) from Kastre: Haaslava Male Choir (conductor Kalev Lindal), dance group Krüsanteem (leader Made-Heljo Ruul), village band HääMiil, musicians Ain Anijärv and Osvald Pähno.
Actors: Merle Päll, Ivar Dubolazov, Ene Runtel, Sandra ja Gregor Kroon, Marta Pärn, Liise Rebeka Käärik, Daren-Marcus Teder, Teresa Lepikov, Raivo Aasna and others.
Horses by Võnnu Mahetalu

Please leave at least 15 minutes to get from the parking lot to the starting point of the performance.
Latecomers are not allowed to the trail.
With mobility issues please contact for assistance: [email protected], +372 5365 2155

Directing & text: Jānis Balodis (LAT) & Barbara Lehtna (EST/LAT)
Composing: Līva Blūma (LAT)
Choreography: Helena Krinal (EST/PAL)
Scenography & costume: Kristiāns Aglonietis (LAT)
Production manager: Liina Jõgar (EST)
Production: Foundation INITIUM – Ieva Niedre, Ilga Vālodze Ābele – and Kastre municipality

The performance is part of the Festival Kaera-Jaan programme. Festival Kaera-Jaan 2024 combines landscape, sculpture, community theater and heritage in Vooremäe, Kastre municipality, Tartu county.
The family and community event spreads out on the slopes of Vooremäe hills, winding down the paths of landscape sculptures; in the form of a community theater performance, in which to embark on an adventorous journey together with the people of the parish; with spring fair amusements and the kaerajaan themed exhibition.
The project is part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 main program.

If you want to grab a bite or need a place to stay, see what the Tartu 2024 hospitality network offers in the area: https://tartu2024.ee/recommendations-kastre