Normal Cake Please in Riga 1—3 October
Fictional queer wedding. You are a wedding guest, urged to gossip with other wedding guests and taught some easy dance movements to use in the ceremony.
The third version of Normal Cake, Please took place at The Anglican Church of the Holy Saviour in Riga, Latvia, on 1—3 October, 2022, as a part of Performing and audiovisual arts festival The Autumn of the Patriarch program!
The site specific, English speaking Normal Cake, Please is a fictional wedding in two acts taking place in four intimate spaces and a church. In the intimate spaces you get to see two of the four main characters preparing for the wedding. Then you experience the wedding ceremony in the church. The underlining aim is open a space with the audience to queer normality and normalise queer.
The performance is lightly participatory. You are a wedding guest, urged to gossip with other wedding guests and taught some easy dance movements to use in the ceremony.
Normal Cake, Please saw it’s premiere in Helsinki, Finland, at St Paul’s Church in July, 2021, and before the end of the month it was also performed in Helsingør, Denmark, at Our Lady Monastery. The performance is a collaboration between Finnish, Danish and Latvian live art professionals produced by Uneasy Listening Society (DK). The performances in Riga are supported by Latvian Academy of Culture, Nordic Council of Ministers, Ministry of Culture Denmark and Kone Foundation.
Performances on Sat 1 at 19.00, Sun 2 at 20.00 and Mon 3 at 19.00.
- Backround of Normal Cake Please
- Festival web page of The Autumn of the Patriarch (in Latvian)
- Ivo Briedis interviewed in LSM.lv September 21, 2022 (in Latvian)
The Normal Cake Riga
ANGELA—Nina Larissa Bassett
JACK—Jamie MacDonald
LEO—Janne Saarakkala
VIESTURS—Ivo Briedis
PRIESTESSES—SkujaBraden (Ingūna Skuja & Melissa Braden)
BESTMAIDS—Vladimir Gorshantov, Paula Koivunen, Didzis Ruicēns, Signe Valtiņa
Concept: Bassett, Briedis, MacDonald, Saarakkala
Script: Bassett, Briedis, MacDonald, Saarakkala & SkujaBraden
Direction: Bassett, Briedis, MacDonald, Saarakkala, Janne Pellinen
Choreography: Kira Riikonen & working group in Riga
Costumes, props & visuals: Paula Koivunen
Lights & sound: Niks Cipruss
Musician: Marko Ojala
Production: Rita Ruduša, Anna Ulberte, Kristine Freiberga
Music: Thomas Burø: Punk Organ Music; The Cure: Plainsong, Just Like Heaven; Depeche Mode: Somebody
