Vaba Lava head: Narva theatre does not want another court fight with Culture Ministry

The chairman of the board of Estonia's Vaba Lava theatre organization, Allan Kaldoja, said management does not wish to take the Culture Ministry to court again over funding for its Narva venue. He spoke on the ETV+ program "Narva Studio. It Matters to the People" on Saturday, September 26.

Kaldoja recalled that Vaba Lava had previously won a legal dispute against the Culture Ministry, but said the organization now hopes to settle the current issue without a new court case, adding that Vaba Lava wants fair competition with other state-supported theatres.

The funding gap

According to Kaldoja, Vaba Lava had expected that having a permanent, mainly Estonian-language theatre in Narva would obviously be important to the state. However, securing stable funding has proven difficult. He pointed out that taxpayers already fund theatres in other small Estonian towns, such as Rakvere and Viljandi, fairly generously, so supporting the only such theatre east of Rakvere seemed logical — but it has not worked out that simply.

Vaba Lava has previously said that, at the current funding level, it is not prepared to extend the lease on its Narva building for another five years. The theatre needs roughly an additional 250,000 euros a year.

The Culture Ministry has proposed that Vaba Lava continue competing for support through the general private theatre funding scheme. The ministry and the theatre had earlier discussed setting up a dedicated institution in Narva, but failed to reach agreement.

Kaldoja expressed hope that the funding issue could be resolved politically, saying he would be pleased if Culture Minister Heidi Purga went into the next elections as the minister who solved this eight-year-old problem.