“Symphony of Efficiency” is the first production by freelance director Renate Keerd in Tallinn City Theatre. Over the years, Keerd’s unique and sensitive directorial style – characterized by optimism, poetry, wit, and sociopolitical relevance – has gathered attention both in Estonia and abroad. Keerd has a contemporary and distinct theatrical language and is the author, director, set designer, and musical designer of the production. For “Symphony of Efficiency,” she drew inspiration from the texts of 13th-century Japanese poet Yoshida Kenkō and contemporary Estonian poet Kruusa Kalju. In addition to Kenkō’s wisdom, Keerd was struck by the realization of how little human nature has changed over many centuries. “Symphony of Efficiency” is based on the eternal paradoxes of human beings and life.
The production features a selection of texts from Kenkō’s “Essays in Idleness” translated by Rein Raud and Kruusa Kalju’s poetry collection “The Old Man of Survivals.”