LÄBU VOL2 | EPISOOD 1 | Zhenyan Ding | Elar Vahter | Leah Gayer

Humana

by

ZHENYAN DING

China

Author and performer: ZHENYAN DING
Lighting design: ROMMI RUTTAS and LEON ALLIK
Dramaturgical support: SANDRA KÜPPER and GIACOMO VERONESI
Producers: JÜRI NAEL and ANNIKA ÜPRUS
Production: CPPM | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Premiere: 6 September 2025 EMTA black box

I’ve forgotten my first time entering a secondhand clothing store. I only remember clothes arranged without any order, their disarray dizzying to my eyes. I took a deep breath—the air carried traces of something peculiar. I knew their journey to this place couldn’t have been easy.

The initial inspiration for the work was my first experience in Estonia. Everything was new and it was quite painful for me to adapt. This feeling is like the same clothes. I could easily wear them yesterday, but today I can’t do it. Originally, it was a subconscious reaction when I woke up, opened my eyes and sat up, but I seemed to need a translation, Google, and even asked others over and over again, but I still couldn’t master it. I started thinking…

I pass by Humana almost every day.
“PAEVAHIND 4.-” — No rush, it’ll go lower.
“PAEVAHIND 2.-” — Well, I can wait a bit more.
“PAEVAHIND 1.-” — The shop’s crowded now; the good styles must be picked over.
“PAEVAHIND 0.-” — Aren’t you coming yet?!

I’m Zhenyan Ding, and I am trying to touch the boundaries of art. Although art is often measured in lifetimes, my age, approaching 30, keeps urging me to get started. For the past four years, I've been a professional dancer in China, collaborating with various choreographers and always connecting with audiences through my role as a dancer. I've also had the opportunity to experience the feeling of creation and have published several small works, like crossing a river by feeling the stones.

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ”Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Luke 5:4

M&M (The Man and the Myth)

by

ELAR VAHTER

Estonia

Author and performer: ELAR VAHTER
Sound design: MADIS KREEVAN
Scenography: ASTRID REI
Mentor: AARE RANDER
Dramaturgical support: MAARJA MOOR, GIACOMO VERONESI, SANDRA KÜPPER
Lighting designs: ROMMI RUTTAS ja LEON ALLIK
Technical support: CHARIS TAPLIN
Producers: JÜRI NAEL ja ANNIKA ÜPRUS
Production: CPPM | Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia
Premiere: 6. September 2025 EMTA Black Box

In his latest work, Elar Vahter deconstructs the male psyche through the intersecting lenses of cultural mythology and contemporary media discourse. Drawing on his background in physical theatre and performance art, he explores how dominant masculine tropes are internalised and enacted, often at a profound cost.

The performance exposes the tension between inherited ideals and everyday vulnerability, weaving together narratives of manhood, voices from the Manosphere, and lived experience. Vahter reveals the psychological weight of performative masculinity—the silence it enforces, the responsibility it demands, and the emotional range it denies.

Blending movement, text, and symbolism, M&M works to dismantle gendered scripts, opening space for something messier, quieter, and unresolved. Vahter’s performance becomes both a personal reckoning and cultural fabulation—pointing to a masculinity unmoored from myth, lingering in uncertainty, and searching for alternate modes of expression.

Elar Vahter is an Estonian actor and director who navigates the space between the real and the imagined. With a compass once set to the open sea and now attuned to the stage, his artistic journey moves through myth, memory, and social undercurrents. His work invites audiences into dreamlike worlds where fairy tales are reclaimed for grown-ups—fragile, strange, and urgent.

Rooted in a sharp sensitivity to the tensions of contemporary life, Vahter builds performances that blur fantasy with structure, play with archetypes, and expose the emotional truths beneath cultural myths. His path has led from maritime navigation to theological inquiry to the evolving language of physical performance.

He is a graduate of the Estonian Maritime Academy (Navigation), the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy (Acting and Directing), and holds a Master’s in Religious Studies and Theology. He is currently completing a Master’s in Contemporary Physical Performance Making at Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Bog Roll

by

LEAH GAYER

Germany | UK

Author and performer: LEAH GAYER
Scenography: ANETT-MARII SIIMANN
Lighting design: ROMMI RUTTAS and LEON ALLIK
Production assistant and choreographer: AVERY GERHARDT
Dramaturgical support: SANDRA KÜPPER and GIACOMO VERONESI
Producers: JÜRI NAEL and ANNIKA ÜPRUS
Thank you: Dita Lurina-Egliena, Juuli Hyttinen, Charis Taplin, Ana Trif
Production: CPPM | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Premiere: 6 September 2025 EMTA black box

Leah’s dad is in a coma, stuck somewhere between life and death. But in this in-between world, the laws of reality flush away - and where do we end up? On a toilet, naturally. As Leah waits for a sign, surrounded by rolls of toilet paper and existential dread, she faces grief, guilt, and the kind of questions that don't wipe away easily. Because when life gives you crap... sometimes you’ve just got to roll with it.

Bog Roll is a semi-autobiographical performance about losing my father when I was a teenager. The performance tracks my own encounter with bereavement, but also follows my path from being a classically trained dramatic actor, to a theatremaker and physical performer.

Leah Gayer is an actor, writer, theatremaker (RADA BA Hons Acting graduate) and co-founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning Theatre Company of Sanctuary and registered charity, Compass Collective. She has spent the last six years working professionally in theatre and film, whilst leading Compass. The company supports the integration of young refugees and asylum seekers through high quality creative productions.

LÄBU VOL2 is proudly part of the Tallinn Fringe Festival
Esineja: Zhenyan Ding Elar Vahter Leah Gayer
** Žanr:** kaasaegne etenduskunst
** Keel:** inglise, hiina, eesti
** Kestus:** 2 tundi
** Vanusesoovitus:** 18+
** Piletid:** 20€ 12€
Maailma esilinastus
#TallinnFringe2025