Kultuurilise identiteedi järelekatsumine Eesti teatris
Games with cultural identity in Estonian theatre

Summary/Abstract: The 1990s were a period of new emerging subgroups and identities, so establishing a common national identity was no longer a primary concern. Sooner or later, almost all customary social structures and collective values and beliefs collapsed, forcing persons — as individuals and as members of particular groups — to question their position in the rapidly changing society. The continuously fluctuating social and cultural contexts through which identities are constructed made the process particularly complicated and infinite. In the (post)modern art practice classical texts and national myths are used mostly as material for deconstruction or free play. The Von Krahl Theatre (the first private theatre in Estonia, founded in 1992) with Peeter Jalakas acting as an artistic director, has been interested in performing and researching cultural myths about Estonians, while at the same time mixing them with modern international culture. Productions of Jalakas have been grounded on clear oppositions: our own – foreign, old – new, while “our own” is usually the old and “new” is mostly foreign. The ways in which identities and performative strategies signifying them might be altered or modified will be analysed by example of a production by Peeter Jalakas, “The Werewolf” (1998). Deconst-ructive strategies used in the production are mainly in the service of revisiting the national cultural heritage.

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