Jānis Balodis & Nahuel Cano: THE LAST NIGHT OF THE DEER

performance
(Latvia, Argentina)

The Last Night of the Deer is a collaborative performance devised by the Latvian dramaturge and playwright Jānis Balodis and the Argentinian actor, theatre artist and sound experimenter Nahuel Cano. They met as Master’s students at the DAS Graduate School in the Netherlands, both graduating in 2020. Passing through stories of family heritage, legacy and ecology, The Last Night of the Deer is an autobiographical-fictional road trip performance that concerns itself with the state of affairs that we leave behind for our children. It was in December 2021 that Nahuel Cano was travelling from Amsterdam to Riga for Jānis Balodis to collect him from a port in Klaipeda, Lithuania. A violent snowstorm ensued as soon as they left Klaipeda, so they decided to take the side road instead. Clarity of thought and internal composure dissipated when they collided with a reindeer, an event that trapped them in the moment. In their own words: »This is a story of too many human forests and too many human ghosts that inhabit them«. After the incident the artists are walked home by the audience, where we can all merely stare through the window and keep silent.

60 minutes
Performance is in English with Slovene surtitles.

Idea, direction: Jānis Balodis & Nahuel Cano
Producer: Ieva Briede
Light consultant: Dina Beināre
Co-produced by: International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus, Contemporary Art Festival ANTI
Supported by: Evropska unija: program Ustvarjalna Evropa – Kultura, ACT – Art, Climate, Transition
Translation to Slovene: Ana Radović

Photo by: Aivars Ivbulis, Akseli Muraja