"Homo Novus" festival to bring theatre to unusual venues along the Daugava this September

An international festival of new theatre, "Homo Novus", will take place across Riga and other parts of Latvia from September 4 to 12. Organisers have announced the complete programme for this year's event.

Festival events will be spread across a wide area along the banks of the Daugava river, stretching from Krāslava to Riga. Audiences will be able to see performances and other events not only in traditional theatre venues but also in a number of unconventional locations.

Unconventional venues

Among the announced venues are the halls of the Latvian National Museum of Art, the creative factory quarter "Veldze", and the Great Cemetery (Lielie kapi). Events will also take place on the grounds of a road construction company and even inside a residential trailer, reflecting the festival's intent to present theatre outside its usual context and bring it closer to audiences in varied settings.

This approach of staging events in diverse, less expected locations is characteristic of "Homo Novus" as a festival that experiments with new forms of theatre and encourages audiences to reconsider their usual assumptions about how art is perceived and experienced.