BARBARA LEHTNA

Monstera Deliciosa is a creeping vine with huge, serrated leaves that has been a popular decoration in clinics, schools, libraries, apartments, and private homes for more than 30 years. Under favorable conditions, the monstera grows rapidly and expands to fill the space around it. Nurturing plants and the well-being of others – the invisible day-to-day work of care is also carried out by the women around us, filling the empty spaces in the social landscape.

“Monstera Deliciosa” brings together on stage four women from different generations to tell their own stories while singing the stories of other women. In a densely packed soundscape coexist the everyday worries of a public toilet attendant and the environmental concerns of a young ecofeminist, the desire to balance and strengthen the sometimes fragile bonds that unite and hold us together.

The libretto was created by meeting and listening to women living in Latvia and Estonia who take care of plants and people around them in their daily lives, while the original music was created by transforming the genre of chamber opera through the tradition of choral singing that Latvians and Estonians share. Between the black earth and the plastic flowers, the creative team is looking for ways to grow, flourish, and be with each other in the world we inhabit. 

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