Urmas Lennuk
Urmas Lennuk (born 16 October 1971) is a playwright, dramaturge and scriptwriter.
Lennuk attended school at Tamsalu, studied Estonian language and literature in Tallinn Pedagogical Institute and theatrical direction at the Department of Drama at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He has worked as artistic director of Tamsalu community centre, teacher of Estonian language and literature, dramaturge of the Vanemuine Theatre, lecturer at the Department of Drama at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and director, dramaturge and playwright at Rakvere Theatre. Member of the Estonian Union of Directors and Dramaturges from 2001.
Lennuk was one of the most remarkable playwrights in the 00s, attracting already attention with his debut play Rongid siin enam ei… (‘Trains Don’t Run Here Anymore…’) which premiered at the Ugala Theatre in Viljandi in 2002 and was published in the collection Ükskord Eestimaal (‘Once in Estonia’, 2015) together with the plays Päeva lõpus (‘At the End of the Day’) and Ema oli õunapuu (‘Mother was an Appletree’). The same characters appear in all the three plays; the central place among them belongs to two brothers and the story of their home village. Against the background of family history, Lennuk maps the fading village life in present-day Estonia and the constantly increasing problems of peripheral regions. He does it with human warmth and mild humour. Rongid siin enam ei… received the first prize at the playwriting competition of the Estonian Theatre Agency.
Lennuk has dramatised the texts of several authors, particularly noteworthy among them are the dramatisations of A. H. Tammsaare’s works which have been staged at several Estonian theatres, e.g., Kõrboja perenaine (‘The Mistress of Kõrboja’) based on Kõrboja peremees (‘The Master of Kõrboja’), Wargamäe Wabariik (‘The Republic of Wargamäe’) based on Tõde ja õigus (‘Truth and Justice’), Vargamäe voonake (‘The Lamb of Vargamäe’), and children’s play Vai-vai vaene Vargamäe (‘Ow, Ow, Poor Vargamäe’). For children, Lennuk has written a story explaining the principles of nutrition in a fairytale form – Söö ära söö (‘Eat, Don’t Eat’, 2007).
From 2011–2014, Lennuk was the scriptwriter of Õnne 13 (‘13 Happiness Street’), the oldest and most popular Estonian television serial.
In 2001, Lennuk won a special mention at the playwriting competition of the Estonian Theatre Agency for his play Liivakellade parandaja (‘Repairer of Hourglasses’), in 2003 he received the first prize for his play Boob teab (‘Boob Knows’) and an encouragement prize for the play Kadunud kindapood (‘Lost Shoeshop’). In addition, he has received (in cooperation with Eili Neuhaus), the special prize of the Estonian Theatre Union drama jury for the staging of Mtsenski maakonna leedi Macbeth (‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’) in 2010 and in 2011 the director’s prize for Vargamäe varjus (‘In the Shadow of Vargamäe’). In 2015, the collection of plays Ükskord Eestimaal (‘Once in Estonia’) received the Literature Endowment Annual Award. In 2017 he received the colleague’s prize of Rakvere Theatre as the best director and in 2019 the Oskar Luts humour prize.
A. K. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Plays
Ükskord Eestimaal: näidenditriloogia. Viljandi: Ugala teater, 2015, 291 lk.
Children’s literature
Söö ära söö. Tallinn: Varrak, 2007, 145 lk.
