In a new documentary piece set for the spring at Kellerteater – Estonia's first thriller-based theater – director Kristina Paškevicius is tackling dating dramas and relationship horror through the real-life adventures of Estonians in the world of online dating.

The play's author, Andra Teede, is now looking for true stories about people's adventures on Tinder and similar dating sites as source material for the new play. The stories could be shared in the form of summaries, copied texts or screenshots.

"We want to know everything," said Teede.

"And don't worry, in the end, the piece being staged will mix fact with faction, using real actors. All the names and facts will be changed to protect the privacy of you and your conversation partners. Though you can secretly smile to yourself in the audience, knowing that you have put your crazy exes into the play and they will never get out. There's no need to worry – we will change all the names and guarantee 100 percent anonymity."

"For me, this is a great topic to write a play about. Finally, because I have written so many plays about  really sad things. About deportation, war and the difficult lives of physicists," said Teede on ETV show "Ringvaade.

"So, at last, I can write about the lives of women in contemporary Tallinn. Although we have more men than women on our stage, so we are still looking for men's stories," she added. 

Ultimately, Teede pointed out, the production is a horror story, in keeping with the usual style of the Kellerteater.  "There will definitely be some humor though, " said the director. 

According to Paškevicius, there is a lot more to the story than just being female-centric.  

"It's still exciting that women have a biological clock ticking too. When a woman is over 30 or 40 years old, the stories take on added significance. The desperation to find a partner," said the director, who also had a Tinder account at the time the idea was formed. 

"It all started when I had been single and unattached for a year at the beginning of the summer. I had just got over a difficult divorce and so, I created a Tinder account at the beginning of the summer. I was on there for 3 to 4 months," she said. 

However, things did not go all that well. 

"I got fed up, I was angry. Basically, the first thing people sent me was naked pictures. I also quit because I was honest and sincere there. When I realized that I was getting so much inspiration and so many cool stories from it and that it had also become a kind of social project, I also felt that I didn't want to lie to other people. I'm still looking for a partner, but there's also a bit of an experimental vibe to it," explained Paškevicius. 

In just a few days since calling for contributions to the play, Teede has already received more than 10 different stories from members of the Estonian public.  

"So far, the stories sent in have been rather sad. But if you want to write something exciting, is there anything more exciting than this cat-and-mouse game of whether he likes me, whether I like him and what will happen now?" said Teede, adding that the play is also partly a sociological project that examines how modern dating really works."

The theater is still waiting for people to send details of their adventures or screenshots of conversations from dating platforms.

They can sent directly to the play's author, Andra Teede, at [email protected] or submitted via the Kellerteater website here.

Stories will be accepted for consideration up until November 2.

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