CONTEMPORARY SOLO PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
LÄBU
M&M (The Man and the Myth)
by
ELAR VAHTER
Estonia
Author and performer: ELAR VAHTER
Sound design: MADIS KREEVAN
Scenography: ASTRID REI
Mentor: AARE RANDER
Dramaturgical support: MAARJA MOOR, GIACOMO VERONESI, SANDRA KÜPPER
Lighting designs: ROMMI RUTTAS ja LEON ALLIK
Technical support: CHARIS TAPLIN
Producers: JÜRI NAEL ja ANNIKA ÜPRUS
Production: CPPM | Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia
Premiere: 6. September 2025 EMTA black box
In his latest work, Elar Vahter deconstructs the male psyche through the intersecting lenses of cultural mythology and contemporary media discourse. Drawing on his background in physical theatre and performance art, he explores how dominant masculine tropes are internalised and enacted, often at a profound cost.
The performance exposes the tension between inherited ideals and everyday vulnerability, weaving together narratives of manhood, voices from the Manosphere, and lived experience. Vahter reveals the psychological weight of performative masculinity – the silence it enforces, the responsibility it demands, and the emotional range it denies.
Blending movement, text, and symbolism, M&M works to dismantle gendered scripts, opening space for something messier, quieter, and unresolved. Vahter’s performance becomes both a personal reckoning and cultural fabulation – pointing to a masculinity unmoored from myth, lingering in uncertainty, and searching for alternate modes of expression.
Elar Vahter
Elar Vahter is an Estonian actor and director who navigates the space between the real and the imagined. With a compass once set to the open sea and now attuned to the stage, his artistic journey moves through myth, memory, and social undercurrents. His work invites audiences into dreamlike worlds where fairy tales are reclaimed for grown-ups—fragile, strange, and urgent.
Rooted in a sharp sensitivity to the tensions of contemporary life, Vahter builds performances that blur fantasy with structure, play with archetypes, and expose the emotional truths beneath cultural myths. His path has led from maritime navigation to theological inquiry to the evolving language of physical performance.
He is a graduate of the Estonian Maritime Academy (Navigation), the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy (Acting and Directing), and holds a Master’s in Religious Studies and Theology. He is currently completing a Master’s in Contemporary Physical Performance Making at Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
