River Tours. Daugava

Documentary storytelling performance in public space

4–12 September 2026

Various locations along the Daugava, from Krāslava to Riga, Latvia

River Tours. Daugava is a forty-five-minute documentary storytelling performance — a journey along the Daugava in the company of a witty grass snake, performed by Eduards Beļnikovs. Beginning where the river meets the Baltic Sea and travelling upstream, the snake guides the audience through centuries of history, weaving together stories of flooded towns, folklore, hydroelectric dams, migrating wildlife and traces of human life.

The Daugava emerges not merely as a geographical feature or a symbol of Latvian culture, but as a living archive. Its waters carry personal memories, political decisions, radical transformations of the landscape, everyday incidents and stories passed from one generation to another. The river connects places and communities while preserving evidence of what has been flooded, displaced or lost in the name of progress.

The narrative, written by Diāna Kondraša and Rvīns Varde, is accompanied by a textile map created by Ūna Laukmane. Gradually unfolding before the audience, the map gives the course of the Daugava a material and tactile form. It is more than an illustration: it becomes the performance space, the route of the journey and a vessel for memory. Original music by Aleksandrs Maijers introduces another current into the river’s story.

The production is deliberately simple and mobile. It requires no conventional stage and can unfold in a market square, a park, on a promenade, inside a museum or directly beside the water. At each location, the Daugava becomes both the subject of the performance and its physical scenography. As the work travels from Krāslava to Riga, it encounters audiences within their own communities, allowing the shared story of the river to acquire a distinctly local voice.

River Tours. Daugava is the eighth work in the River Tours series created by Birmingham-based theatre company Stan’s Cafe. For more than three decades, the company has used playful and deceptively simple theatrical forms to engage with complex social, political and historical ideas. Latvian audiences previously encountered Stan’s Cafe at the 2016 edition of the Homo Novus festival, where the company presented its acclaimed rice installation Of All the People in All the World.

Performances in Latvia

4 September 2026 — Market Square, Krāslava

5 September 2026 — Juzefova Park, Naujene

6 September 2026 — Bruģu Street Promenade, Daugavpils

6 September 2026 — Fortress Promenade, Daugavpils

7 September 2026 — Liepsalas, Aizkraukle Municipality

8 September 2026 — Līvāni Glass and Crafts Centre, Līvāni

8 September 2026 — Daugava riverbank, Jēkabpils

10 September 2026 — Daugavas kuģi, Staburags

11 September 2026 — Strazdumuiža, Riga

11 September 2026 — AB Dam, Riga

12 September 2026 — AB Dam, Riga

Audience Information

Duration: 45 minutes

Format: performance in public space

Admission: free

Accessibility: relaxed performance; wheelchair accessible

Audience members are welcome to move around, change seats, leave the performance and return whenever needed. The performance does not contain any significant sensory stimuli.

At Strazdumuiža on 11 September 2026, a tactile tour preceded the performance, which was presented with audio description. The performance at AB Dam later that day included sign-language interpretation.

Creative Team

Created by: Stan’s Cafe in collaboration with Diāna Kondraša and Rvīns Varde

Director: Lucy Bird

Writers: Diāna Kondraša, Rvīns Varde

Map and costume designer: Ūna Laukmane

Performer: Eduards Beļnikovs

Composer: Aleksandrs Maijers

Local producer: Ieva Briede, New Theatre Institute of Latvia

Touring producer: Marina Ivanova, New East

Co-produced by: Stan’s Cafe and the New Theatre Institute of Latvia

Presented as part of: International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus 2026

The production is supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme through The Big Green, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and Arts Council England. It forms part of the project “KKC — Development of a Community Cultural Centre for Social Cohesion”, No. 4.3.2.0/1/25/A/044.