In honor of the centenary of Pēters Pētersons, the Ventspils theater staged the play of the outstanding playwright and theater director under the direction of director Vija Draviņa Just a musician whose action during the Second World War partly took place in Ventspils as well. The premiere of the production will take place on December 1 at 19 in the Ventspils Culture Center.
The show will take the audience to the past – in the fall of 1944, when the horrors of the Second World War had spread further in Europe, but in Latvia, in the triangle between Liepāja, Tukum and Ventspils, the area known as Kurzeme cauldron. It is here that the events take place, in which the main character of the play – the pianist Klaavs – is involved. Germans are farmers in the cities, Reds are in the forests, but thousands of Latvian refugees who have left their homes in indecision and doubts, do not want to go to Germany, but cannot get to Sweden so soon, live in the countryside – in the houses of Kurzeme farmers. Klávas is caught forging a passport, arrested and his pianist’s hands are mutilated under torture.
In the play, historical events form the background against which the story of the artist is told. To break a human soul, to destroy dreams and intentions, you don’t always need bullets and war. A person simply wants to live, work and do the things he needs, he wants to love… But he is dragged into a vortex of circumstances completely independent of him. Like a grain among millstones. Catfish? Unground? The choice…
in the play created in 1986 Just a musician Pēteris Pētersons also recorded what he experienced in the Kurzeme cauldron in his youth. The play was first staged by the author himself in the Latvian National Theater in 1987. But this year in Latvian cultural life is marked by the 100th anniversary of playwright, theater director, translator and publicist Pēteras Pētersons. With a motto Only Peterson there have been events dedicated to the great artist’s life and work. Ventspils theater also responded to the invitation of Professor Jānis Siliņš, director of the Eduardas Smilģas Museum, and staged a play by Pēters Pētersons Just a musicianwhich will be submitted to the audience for evaluation very soon.
The action of the play takes place in Liepāja and on the seafront of Ventspils, from where the refugees crossed the sea in boats. These events are not directly depicted in the show, but serve as a historical background to the story. “This play is politically appealing, telling about that time, but the works of the playwright, publicist and charming director Pēters Pētersons also have a very pronounced poetics – also in this play, about the vulnerable person, which is the great musician Klāvs at the beginning of his journey, and about how circumstances completely independent of a person can change a lot in the fate of that person. Of course, the play is permeated by the thought of what the Latvian people had to experience in general – where some were on the German side, one part was on the Soviet side, and there was also brother against brother. And about what war does, the insecurity, the ignorance and the huge, terrible fear that war instills in people. It was the message of the play that really appealed to me, how the vulnerable, fragile soul of an artist is caught between these millstones,” says director Vija Draviņa.
Pēteris Pētersons gave this play a subtitle Kurzeme ballad. As the director of the Ventspils Theater admits, for Peterson’s works in general and also for the play Just a musician pronounced poeticism is characteristic. A choir of six actors will read Peterson’s poetry in the show, reflecting the thoughts and essence of the main character – the musician Klāvas – and the atmosphere of the era around him.
In the show, we will see well-loved and experienced actors of the Ventspils theater, as well as new talents. For several young actors, these will be their first big roles. The musician Klāva will be played by the young actor Rūdolfs Punkstiņš. “Rudolf himself plays the piano wonderfully and is very musical, he will also play Emīl Dārziņš’s Melancholic Waltz in the performance,” reveals Draviņa. The first big roles in the show will also be played by Laima Pruse, Aija Yonan and Artur Grieze. “For these four, this will really be the real baptism of fire for actors,” admits the director. In the performance, we will also see the actors of the Ventspils theater Andri Lasmani, Jānis Birznieku, Liana Griķi, Simona Griezi, Baiba Griķi, Baiba Jaunzemi, Mētra Zikmani and Uldi Pabērza.
The production’s costumes and scenography are under the control of Marta Kalnavas, Mareks Spruģevits (lights) and Jānis Kraulis (sound) also work on the show.
2023-11-29 15:35:53
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