Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männik, Oksana Tralla-Anger "Holy Night 2"

The stage production Holy Night 2 is part of the side programme of the international exhibition Who Is Afraid of Motherhood (curator: Eda Tuulberg) at the Kumu Art Museum.

In the Estonian performative arts scene, Holy Night is a rare longitudinal project. The first version of the production was staged in 2013, and its sequel will premiere in 2027, with fourteen years between them: that’s almost a full teenage.

The first Holy Night was built around the question of how to go on being an artist while also being a mother; the second version focuses on the relationship with a teenager and decomposing support structures. How to support a teenager’s self-discovery without clouding it with expectations? How to give the teenager space when the world is offering them none? And what if, instead of an increase in independence, the future brings an increase in dependency and care burden?

The Ministry of Education, social welfare, the family physician, the Republic of Estonia, the cancer treatment foundation, the father of the child and the nursing home for the elderly: will you please pick up the phone this time when I call you? Or are you going to put me on hold again?

Flo Kasearu is an artist who lives and works in Tallinn and runs the Flo Kasearu House Museum. Her works are essentially seasonal and exploratory, often with playful aspects. Flo boldly uses irony to address issues on a grass-roots level and to deal with such topics as public versus private space and links between the monumentally permanent and the ephemeral. She is a mother of two.

Riina Maidre is a freelance actor, performance artist and a special education teacher. She studied at the drama school of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Estonian Academy of Arts, the DasArts Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam, and at the University of Tartu. She has worked in the Estonian Drama Theatre, the Von Krahl Theatre and the Tallinn French Lyceum. Her practice centres around long-term observations of human beings and nature, as well as methods of support and intervention based on noticing, which intertwine the artistic with the pedagogical. She is a class teacher and a mother of one.

Marianne Männi is an artist with a diverse creative background, whose journey has taken her from ballet to visual arts, music, performance art and film. She has also worked as a barmaid and a taxidermist, adding rather unique dimensions to her set of experiences. In addition to motherhood, tattoo art and pole dance have entered her life, allowing for bodily expression to meet precision and creativity. Currently she teaches ballet to young gymnasts, combining her diverse experiences to teach movement to the next generation. She is a mother of two.

Oksana Tralla-Anger is an Estonian dancer, choreographer, stage director and dance teacher, whose oeuvre ranges from classical dance to interdisciplinary performative arts. She has staged productions in the National Opera and Ballet Estonia, the Estonian National Theatre Vanemuine, the Kanuti Gildi SAAL and other venues, and has collaborated with different creative ensembles in Estonia and internationally. She currently works as the head of the choreography curricula and is an associate professor of dance art in the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School of Tallinn University. She is a three-time laureate of Estonian Annual Theatre Awards and a mother of two.

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Stage directors and performers: Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männi, Oksana Tralla-Anger

Close relatives involved in the stage production: Iip, Emilia, Jakob, Mehis, Pääsu, Rafael, Vint

Stage design and technical solutions: Tõnu Narro

Lighting artist: Anton Kulagin

Project manager: Kerly Ritval (Kanuti Gildi SAAL)

Project coordinator: Magdaleena Maasik (Art Museum of Estonia – Kumu Art Museum)

Supporter: Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Co-producers: Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Kumu Art Museum, Flo Kasearu, Riina Maidre, Marianne Männi and Oksana Tralla-Anger

We thank all of our former and current men and grandparents.