Ellen´s Second

On a December afternoon in 1972, after a grocery errand when Jaan has come down and helped carry the bags upstairs just to disappear back into his den, 44-year-old Ellen sits down at the window of her living room. The bright winter sun is blinding. An early wake-up, daily chores and a half-finished translation have exhausted her. For a moment, Ellen feels dizzy, sees bright spots dancing before her eyes, and then it is over. Somebody calls for her and her busy day continues because there is much to do. “Yes, coming!” Ellen shouts, and everything continues… but there was a flickering second between the touch of sunlight and two heartbeats when the world was not completely still. Just like in a corridor with its two doors on both ends wide open, Ellen sees her life right back to the beginning and all the way from this December afternoon to its end. She sees the sinewy hands of his father who was a coppersmith; Jaan picking up trash, muttering to himself; her first kiss in Toomemäe; the ship Georg Ots leaving its port; dandelions on the side of a road in Kassari; the ruins of bombed Tallinn; a writer bent over a desk; and a green shard of glass on a sidewalk. She sees the playful characters of her children’s books; and the flags changing on the tower of Pikk Hermann… She sees it all at once: everything that was and everything that remains.

A production about Ellen Niit – a writer and mother, full of energy and joie de vivre. This is a story about small moments, where remembering them grows into something more than life itself. Something that can be called happiness.

Premiere on 25 January 2025 at the Harbour Theatre