Agnese Jēkabsone will attend the Spēlmaņu nakts awards ceremony on November 23 as a nominee for best actress, Diena reported.
The Liepāja Theatre performer is recognized for her role as Liene Raudupiete in director Mārtiņš Eihe’s production of Three Funerals and Two Weddings.
She currently stars in the monodrama First Face, which premiered October 10 in the theatre’s Small Hall at the Lielais Dzintars concert hall. Diena interviewed her on October 17 in the theatre’s Šampanietis hall; europesays.com reported the same account.
"I’d rather stay home, watch TV on the couch and hold my husband’s hand," Jacobsone said. "As an introvert, I really don’t need public events."
Two Roles in One Season
Jēkabsone moves between two contrasting parts. In First Face, based on Suzie Miller’s play and directed by Inese Mičule, she plays Tessa Ensler, a criminal defense lawyer who defends the accused in rape cases. After Tessa herself becomes a victim of sexual assault, she experiences the justice system from the victim’s side and realizes legal truth and human truth do not always align.
Last season she played Pepe, the dog belonging to Mārtiņš Freimanis, in a production directed by Mārtiņš Kalita. "The path to every role is the same," she said. "There’s no other recipe."
To build Pepe, she read books written from a dog’s perspective and watched films about dogs, but agreed with the director never to play a dog. She studied mute people—how they listen, hear and communicate—and concluded she was essentially playing Mārtiņš Freimanis as a teenage girl. "I participated in all rehearsals, even though I had no lines," she said.
Alone on Stage
The monodrama places Jēkabsone alone on stage for two hours with no partner. "I’m scared," she said. "Not because I can’t handle it as an actress, or because the volume is large, but because you’re alone. There’s no partner."
The white set and lighting reflect off the walls, letting her see every audience reaction. She sees men sighing mid-performance and tears in others’ eyes. The play runs 100 minutes with rapid dynamics that leave no room to pause. "I’d like to breathe in and out after every paragraph, but I can’t," she said.
I have spoken."
The Nomination
The Gamers’ Night nomination for Liene Raudupiete feels like "yesterday" to her now, she said. She studied at Klaipėda University’s Faculty of Arts in 2010 under Velta Žīgure-Anužiene and Vītautas Anužis, part of a course whose graduates, now almost forty, have kept their energy for acting.
Director Inese Mičule studied law, which shaped her translation of the play. The program note is deliberately printed without an annotation because, as Jēkabsone put it, words can be empty when feeling overwhelms rational thought.
Questions About Jēkabsone’s Season
When is the Gamers’ Night ceremony? On November 23, at the Spēlmaņu nakts ceremony, Jēkabsone is nominated as the 2025/2026 season’s best actress for Three Funerals and Two Weddings.
What is First Face about? The 100-minute monodrama follows defense lawyer Tessa Ensler, who after being assaulted herself sees the justice system from a victim’s perspective, according to Diena.
Where did she train? At Klaipėda University in Lithuania in 2010, europesays.com reported.
The November 23 ceremony will reveal whether Jēkabsone takes home the award.
Worth a look