Ironic musical performance Stupid Life with the participation of Dakh Daughters, The Tiger Lillies and actresses of Dailes Theatre and CCA Dakh is set for premiere in Riga
The cooperation of two European Theatre Convention (ETC) members, Centre of Contemporary Art Dakh Theatre (CCA Dakh, Ukraine) and Dailes Theatre (Latvia), has resulted in a musical performance Stupid Life which is set for the world premiere on August 10 and 11 in Riga at the Dailes Theatre. Performance will bring together two iconic cabaret groups – Ukrainian Dakh Daughters and British The Tiger Lillies – together with the actresses of the Dailes Theatre and CCA Dakh who will stir up the air on the stage with heretical humour and deadly irony.
In a visually suggestive stand-up show format, in three different languages – Latvian, Ukrainian and English – the artists will search for answers to the questions of freedom and democracy. The team describes the upcoming genre-bending performance as a mixture of original music, video projection, and light effects that immerse the audience in a fantastic journey of musical stand-up. “At a time when humanity is shaken by evil, it's cowardly to look away from the uncomfortable and hurtful. It's necessary to the very core of the bone to laugh at the stupid life – especially in a black and radically honest manner,” Vlad Troitskyi, director and dramaturg of Stupid Life, shares the concept of the performance.
Dakh Daughters is an internationally acclaimed Ukrainian freak-cabaret founded in 2012 in Kyiv. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in Ukraine in 2022, the troupe has chosen France as its home-base, performing concerts in Europe and many other regions. Fusing post-folk, dusty variety, sometimes even five languages and Shakespearean sonnets, Dakh Daughters is perhaps the most visible phenomenon of Ukrainian music and performing arts.
The artistic director of the Dakh Daughters is Ukrainian theatre director, professor and playwright Vlad Troitskyi, who in 1994 founded the first independent theatre company in his native country – the Center of Contemporary Art Dakh Theatre – and GogolFest, the largest multidisciplinary festival of contemporary art in Ukraine. Both of them have become the most recognizable creative centres of theatre, music and contemporary art in Ukraine.
Dailes Theatre, being one of the largest repertoire theatres in the Baltics, is always on the verge of new artistic horizons, fusions of genres and novel aesthetics. After a run of successful past seasons and working with many acclaimed directors and artists, such as Lukasz Twarkowski, John Malkovich, Tiit Ojasoo, Ene-Liis Semper, Data Tavadze and many others, theatre is has prepared a bold season of 2024/2025 with an opening of the Stupid Life and collaborating with Ukrainian and British artists for a meaningful and provocative theatrical experience with the leading actresses of the theatre.
British music trio The Tiger Lillies have been at the vanguard of the scene for over 30 years with their darkly grotesque, nihilistically snarky and punk stage personas and witty songs. Their aesthetics are inspired by almost everything – both Kurt Weill and the French chanson, as well as miming and a London prostitute named Lily, who wore costumes with animal prints. It is the bubbling Berlin of the Weimar era a hundred years ago, which now chants in English.
The sale for tickets of the performance Stupid Life launched on June 12. The performance will be in Latvian, Ukrainian and English, with Latvian surtitles.
Director, dramaturg – Vlad Troitskyi
Lighting artist – Astkhik Hryhorian
Video, subtitles – Mariia Yakovenko
Sound engineer – Simon Auffret
Performers: Solomiia Melnyk, Ruslana Khazipova, Anna Nikitina, Natalia Halanevych, Natacha Charpe (Dakh Daughters); Tetiana Troitska (CCA Dakh); Martyn Jacques, Adrian Stout, Budi Butenop (The Tiger Lillies); Ērika Eglija-Grāvele, Ilze Ķuzule-Skrastiņa, Ieva Segliņa (Dailes Theatre).
Curator – Andrii Palatnyi
Artistic manager of Dakh Daughters – Iryna Gorban
Manager of GOGOLFEST– Anna Basova
Managers of The Tiger Lillies – Martyna Lach, Tim Whitehead
Coordinator – Viktoriia Fedoriv
Producers – Festival of Contemporary Arts GOGOLFEST (Ukraine), Dailes Theatre (Latvia)
