The play reflected the reality of Soviet life with all its distorted ideology, without fear of striking a balance between what was then permissible and what was not permissible in the eyes of young people. This is a play that a young man has written for his youth.
The play was written more than half a century ago, but from time to time this work is performed in one of the theaters. Why? Director Inese Mičule has long wanted to stage a play by a Latvian playwright, but not from new authors, but from the previous generation. “Gunārs Priede’s legacy is not forgotten because of the ideologically poisoned era in which he lived and wrote,” says the director. “I am looking for material so that the existing Valmiera theater ensemble can be put together in one performance with the course of young actors. This play showed that such a symbiosis is possible,” I. Mičule describes the practical side of his choice. Actors Sandis Runge, Diāna Krista Stafecka, Krišjānis Strods, Kārlis Freimanis, Uldis Sņķers, Ieva Puķe, Anna Nele Āboliņa, Meinards Liepiņš, Eduards Johansons, Katrīna Griga, Ieva Estere Barkāne, Mārtiņš Meiers, Mārtiņš Meiers
There are many roles of young people in the play, because the story is about the summer of Uģis Daugaviešis – a young man who has just graduated from technical school – when he arrives at a collective farm. Collective farm, technical school, builders’ unit – these are foreign words for today’s young people. But the show isn’t about that anymore. “It is important to understand the content of the term ‘collective farm’. It is worth remembering the recent past in Latvia, when farms were destroyed, people worked without pay. This, in the process of staging the show, only enriched everyone who went deeper. But the modern show is everything, except for the environment characteristic of the last century, the political regime, “explains I. Mičule. The themes that vibrate in the play – longing, dreams, love – are still relevant today. A person with his weaknesses, positive qualities, his formation of personality and misunderstandings caused by the clash of youth maximalism with the reality of life, first unhappy love, sadness, mistakes and delusions are as relevant today as they were half a century ago, a century ago and even earlier. “A young person’s internal and external conflicts have forever occupied people at all times,” says the director.
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