Laur Kaunissaare "Remember / Don't Remember"

Laur Kaunissaare "Remember / Don't Remember"
A trip in the haze of recent memory

People live their lives and apparently every day a trillion megabytes of new information is recorded somewhere. Maybe it is because of this overflow of new information that recent past seems ever more nebulous. Do you remember what you were doing three months ago? Three years ago? Thirty years ago? How to look at the recent past in an age of endless memory, how to think about it, how to relate to it? What can be forgotten, what can one forget, who has the right to be forgotten and what should be forgotten, if there is truckloads full of material, decades just to read through, and what is the role of forgetting in the birth of the present and of the future?

"Remember / Don't Remember" tries to find its form between an installation and a piece of performing arts. It takes the Communist Party of Estonia, or rather its final decade, or more precisely a now almost completely forgotten building in the very centre of Tallinn that used to house the archives of this party and where everything about all the over 100 000 members of it flowed together. No stones will be thrown - because why? The Communist Party of Estonia is but an image used for thinking about remembering and forgetting.

Laur Kaunissaare has been dramaturge at Theatre NO99, Kanuti Gildi SAAL and Tallinn City Theatre working with Vladislavs Nastavevs, Ene-Liis Semper, Tiit Ojasoo, Alissa Shnaider, Semyon Alexandrovsky et al. Recent years as a freelancer have seen collaborations with Anna Lipponen and Petri Tuhkanen of the Helsinki-based Studio Total ("Dreams for Sale", 2020 and "ICE ICE Baby", 2019), Jarmo Reha ("WhiteWash", 2020 and "Omen", 2018) and Kristina Norman ("Lighter Than Woman", 2019). As a dramaturge Kaunissaare has also contributed to solo shows by contemporary artists (Flo Kasearu, "Endangered Species", 2020 as well as Sigrid Viir, "False Vacationer", 2019). In 2004 Kaunissaare graduated from the Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre as a director.

Idea and direction Laur Kaunissaare
Performance: Riina Maidre and Simeoni Sundja
Art and Space: Kairi Mändla and Aet Ader (b210 Architects)
Sound: Markus Robam and Argo Vals
Light: Siim Reispass
Project management: Eneli Järs
Co-production: Kanuti Gildi SAAL and Laur Kaunissaare
Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Kristi and Siim Kallas sub-fund at the Estonian National Culture Foundation, Estonian State Real Estate, Tallinn Culture and Sports Department, Estonian Association of Architects, Von Krahl Theatre
Premiere June 5, 2021

Duration: 90’
Performance is in Estonian

Performances June 6/8/9/10/12/13/19/20/21 2021, 18:00 Tõnismägi 16, Tallinn

The venue is chilly, please dress accordingly.
The venue is not wheelchair accessible. Apologies!