Lightgarden (Valgusaed)

An embrace of a performance. Like a grandmother’s lap, it has room for everyone.

The production was selected through the 2026/2027 open call and is a co-production of Big Wolf Company and Tartu New Theatre.

Once upon a time, Lightgarden was shaped by light and by its absence: by shadows and reflections formed when hands, plants and stories cross its path. In the Garden, what grows in the shadows reaches towards the light, and people come from far and near to let go of their heaviness, to be filled with wishes and to witness gentleness on a full-moon night.

Lightgarden speaks through aerial acrobatics, storytelling and projections. It is a fairy-tale tent that tests the limits of possibility and imagination. Rather than remaining distant spectators, the audience moves right into the heart of its world.

Light flows into the warm palms of the villagers and, little by little, into their innermost selves. Through light and shadow they too become storytellers, and the tent speaks back.

“This performance is our response to the chaos of the world. It is rooted in the belief that sometimes we need to be held in a space so cosy, warm and safe that we let down our guard and discover that same cosiness, warmth and safety within ourselves.”

An important starting point for this work has been sensory hypersensitivity and the wish to create something soft, slow and nurturing, especially in a world that so urgently demands our attention.

Author and performer: Grete Gross (EE)

Co-author: Elisa Kundi-Matvejeva (LV), Kristiine-Eliise Kadakas (EE)

Narrator and prop master: Krõõt Saar (EE)

Lighting and video designer: Paulius Jakubenas (LT)

Supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the City of Tartu, Riga Circus, Visaginas Cultural Centre and Põlva Cultural Centre.

Premiere: 12 August 2026, in the large hall of the Tartu New Theatre

Language: partly verbal, performed simultaneously in English and Estonian.

Recommended age: 6+. Up to 40 people per performance.

Runtime: up to 1 h 30 min in one part. Both the afternoon and the late-night performance begin with a walk. During the performance the audience is in socks, and at times the experience takes place sitting or lying on the floor.

Meeting points: the afternoon performance starts at 16:00 in front of the Tartu New Theatre on Lai Street; the late-night performance starts at 22:30 at the Kroonuaia Gate of the UT Botanical Garden on Kroonuaia Street. The gates open 10 minutes before, and latecomers cannot join the walk. The Kroonuaia Gate is up to a 10-minute walk from the theatre building.

In case of bad weather, changes may occur. Please check the pre-show information.