In its 30th anniversary year, the International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus returns to its original venue in Daugavpils, offering a special program of events throughout the day on September 13. The programme will feature three international guest performances – Czech director Andreas Miltnerova’s movement theatre performance The Power Game, Bulgarian performer, musician and queer icon Ivo Dimchev’s Selfie Concert and renowned British artists Jo Fong and George Orange’s musical dance performance The Rest of Our Lives. Audiences wishing to depart together from Riga will be accompanied by literary readings from Strāva magazine, whereas the text group Orbīta will perform in the Daugavpils townscape. Our partners will take care of hospitality in Daugavpils: New East, Daugavpils Theater, Daugavpils University, and the cultural venue V-13.

Tickets for individual performances in the Daugavpils programme will be available for purchase from August.
The price of the “travel kit” includes all events in the Daugavpils programme, as well as a train ticket for the route “Riga-Daugavpils-Riga”. A train ticket in both directions you can get from a festival staff before the morning flight - on September 13 at 7:00 a.m. on the platform at the train departure point, presenting the purchased "24 hours in Daugavpils" ticket.

7.00 Meeting point at 7:00 a.m. on platform 1 of Riga Passenger Station, train departure time 7:31 a.m., journey duration 3.5 hours. The train will feature readings of original literary works in collaboration with the magazine Strāva on the theme – the forbidden. 

11.00 informative guided tour Hi!Story
Location: start of the tour at Daugavpils Passenger Station
Meet the personalities born in Latgale and today’s heroes together with the organization “New East"

14.00 performance The Power Game
Andrea Miltnerová, Jan Komárek (Czech Republic)
Venue: Daugavpils Theatre
Two agile old men in suits wrestle in a claustrophobically tight space defined by light. Their precise, stylised movement is both urgent and ridiculous, serious and satirical. Through strange games and associations attention is drawn to the danger of tacit acceptance of power structures and the consequent loss of control over one’s own life. 
The piece was born out of a personal need to react to the disinformation surrounding Covid, climate change and the war in the Ukraine. Read more...

15.00 Festival celebration toast
Venue: Daugavpils Theatre foyer
 Festivities and talks with the founders of the first festival and those shaping Daugavpils’ cultural life today. 

18.00 performance The Rest of Our Lives
Jo Fong, George Orange (United Kingdom)
Venue: V-13 Concert Hall of Daugavpils University 
The performance is a joyful dose of dance, theatre, circus and games. 
Jo is an old dancer, George an old clown. International artists with 100 years of life experience between them, armed with a soundtrack of floor-fillers, a book of raffle tickets and a sprinkling of eco-friendly optimism. Joyful, celebratory and hilarious. Read more...

21.00 The Selfie Concert
Ivo Dimchev (Bulgaria)
Venue: TBC 
Ivo Dimchev only sings and performs when audience members take selfies with him. Together with the audience, this creates a joyful game of self-dramatization. Performed musically and with great gesture, each performance remains improvised and unique. Read more...

3.00 Musical nighttime performance featuring Orbīta
Sergejs Timofejevs, Semjons Haņins, Vladimirs Svetlovs, Staņislavs Judins (Latvia)
Venue: Daugavpils city area, exact location TBC 

3.40 A collective trip to Riga by night train for the most resilient festival guests on the morning of September 14, from 3:40 to 7:00 a.m. (possibility of dancing through the night).

CREDITS

Andrea Miltnerová, Jan Komárek (Czech Republic); Jo Fong, George Orange (United Kingdom); Ivo Dimchev (Bulgaria); Sergejs Timofejevs, Semjons Haņins, Vladimirs Svetlovs, Staņislavs Judins (Latvia)