Piret Jaaks

THE END

None of us knows why we have ended up in this universe, and there is no definite reason why we should be here. And yet we are — moving along the great circuit called “life”. Although we act without any instructions, inventing step by step the art of existing, in which everything is fragile, doubtful, and changeable, one thing is certain: one day it ends. That is inevitable.

In the creative process of the production “The End”, the creators met with those who are connected to life’s final quarter — in a way, bridge-builders: spiritual caregivers, scholars of sacred texts, and experts in folk tradition. We wished to find an answer to the question: “What is the right way to leave?” or, phrased pedagogically: “How does one learn to die?”

What could contemporary transition rituals be for that place about which no one knows anything, and from where no one has ever returned? Must we always view ageing and departing this world with a note of pessimism, or is it possible to see in dying something grand and immortal — an ode to life?

Marta Aliide Jakovski, a young and remarkable Estonian director of Latvian descent, has studied both classical singing and jazz music, and graduated in 2022 from the XXX class of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre’s School of Drama. She currently works at the Tallinn City Theatre.

• Performance in Estonian, with Latvian subtitles