“Karin. Indrek. Truth and Justice. Part Four”, an adaptation of A. H. Tammsaare’s classic novel, is a story about the basic conflict between husband and wife, man and woman, during the early years of the First Estonian Republic. A decade has passed since the end of the First World War and the Estonian War of Independence, and people of the new republic try to follow the European trends, sometimes forgetting the old traditions. It is a world of freedom and democracy, but also a world of morgages, real-estate and fishy business affairs.

While Karin wishes to be a part of the rising bourgeois society, Indrek thinks that salvation and meanig of life can be found only in hard work. The inability of husband and wife to understand each other creates a dramatic conflict with unexpectedly tragic consequences.

Although written in the beginning of 1930ies, the story appears incredibly up-to-date in today’s Estonia.

Awards:

“Karin. Indrek. Turth and Justice. Part Four” was selected the best performance of the season 2005/2006 by theatre critics in the agazine “Theatre. Music. Cinema”.
Elmo Nüganen – the Annual Theatre Award of Estonia for Best Director, 2007
Hele Kõre – the Annual Theatre Award of Estonia for Best Actress, 2007
Evelin Pang – the Annual Theatre Award of Estonia for Best Supporting Actress, 2007
Award from the Estonian theatre festival Drama 2007

Synopsis:

Synopsis of the play

The play begins with the news that Karin’s father, Vesiroos, has gone bankrupt and his business partner Köögertal is to blame. In a fit of rage Vesiroos punches Köögertal, and the latter sues him for causing bodily injury. Karin tries to solve the problem in her own way, letting counselor Paralepp to take her to Köögertal’s party, where she strikes a deal with him – she agrees to start flirting with René, Köögertal’s wife’s protégé (lover?), and in return Köögertal drops the lawsuit.

Karin also decides to take all further business arrangements into her own hands, and turns to counselor Paralepp to make an investment. But it turns out that Paralepp swindled her – he promised to invest the money, but didn’t, and paid her „dividends”, using the same money she first gave him. Although he assures that he loves her and he only did it to be close to Karin, she breaks up her relationship with him and confesses the whole affair to her husband.

In the meantime Indrek is visited by an old school-friend, Melesk, who has now become a revolutionary hiding from the police. Indrek allows him to stay a night at their house, secretly from Karin. Later Melesk is shot by the police in Indrek’s presence, a fact Indrek tries to keep from Karin. Understanding that her husband is keeping something from her, Karin starts to suspect that Indrek has an affair with their maid, Tina, but in fact there is no truth in it.

Tina does, however, have a secret that she refuses to tell Karin, and despite all her efforts Karin will never learn it. (Tina’s secret is the fact that when she was a child, Indrek promised her to marry her, but he doesn’t remember it now that they’ve both grown up. Back then Indrek’s promise helped to heal Tina, whose legs were crippled.)

The conflict and lack of trust and understanding between Karin and Indrek grows and grows – Indrek is disgusted with Karin’s dealings with Paralepp, Köögertal and René, and Karin blames Indrek for not being affectionate enough and keeping secrets from her. The culmination arrives when Karin reminds Indrek of his most painful memory. When Indrek was young, he helped his mother to die – the mother was in great pain and Indrek gave her an overdose medicine according to her own wish. When Karin reminds him of that, Indrek snaps and blindly starts shooting at her.

Karin survives, and Indrek is sent to trial. After he tells the whole story to the court, he is sentenced to one year imprisonment on parole, and set free. Karin begs him to come back home, but Indrek refuses. When Karin runs after him, she is hit by a streetcar and killed.

In addition to the story of Karin and Indrek, the play also includes the new bourgeois society with its aspirations, greed and taste for gossip. It is a world of loans, politics and real-estate. The play also displays two of Karin’s friends – the opposing characters Kitty and Ida. Kitty is a fun-loving lady of society, who deliberately lets her baby die, because the father of the child was not her husband. Kitty is later abandoned by her husband when she is at a beauty clinic in Germany. Ida is a diligent dentist who lives only for work and her family, a role model of responsibility, yet her husband leaves her also. But regardless anyone’s personal tragedies the society parties on.