This work-in-progress stage reading introduces new work by Latvian author Matīss Gricmanis exploring lives of homosexuals in Soviet Latvia. The work is inspired by the phenomena of the legendary bar Skapis (The Closet) and the diaries and archives of Latvian homosexual Kaspars Irbe. Sixty volumes show the secret and public aspects of daily routine of Irbe and his associates, gays and prostitutes of Riga, register the collapse of the Soviet era and decriminalization of homosexual relations when Irbe was 88. It’s a story about the times when the private became the most private and the collective became omnipresent.

In collaboration with the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre’s Contemporary Dramaturgy Festival and creative platform for devising new dramaturgy Versmė.