I had not planned anything special for my 50th birthday, says director Regnārs Vaivars

“I had not planned anything special for my birthday. Because what I like best is being with Madara and Zemga. And if I have to choose what to do on this day, my choice will be to simply be together,” says director Regnārs Vaivars. December 22 is his 50th birthday.

It changes quite radically

Regnārs says that during his lifetime, the customs of celebrating birthdays have changed by decades and quite radically – from celebrating to very big celebrating and not celebrating at all. “I think it is largely related to how I have changed, how my interests, desires, habits and likes have changed,” he says.

Regnar remembers his 10th birthday, but only because he decided to remember it – because maybe someone said that he will definitely remember this round anniversary. “I think the other birthdays in my childhood were exactly the same – with parents and parents’ friends, only I hadn’t decided to remember them,” he states.

Regnar reveals that he spent quite a lot of time alone as a child because his parents worked a lot. Even during the summers he mostly spent with his paternal grandparents, from whom he also has six cousins, he was still alone. But not lonely. «I very quickly learned to feel that I am interesting with myself. And around the age of 16-18 I started to feel old. It may sound strange, but it really was, and it is not coquetry.»

The central guy in “bandit school”

“I studied at Riga 77th Secondary School (later it was Kārļas Videnieks Riga 77th Secondary School, since 2013 – Riga Avotu Elementary School) at the corner of Avotu and Stabu streets. It was a bandit school, it’s no secret, because the district is like that and, accordingly, the contingent. I’m not saying anything bad, but people who have been living in this area for the third generation are the way they are because of some circumstances. At that time, I lived on Frunze (now – Firsa Sadovnikova) street and walked to school for about 20-30 minutes through one of the most unfavorable districts. Bigger and rather dubious-looking guys came up and told me to jump – if there was a jingle in the pockets, then there was money… It was everyday, and it was “normal”, the director dwells on the memories of his school days.

He was the best at school – not only in all sports, but also in studies. Up to about the 7th grade, basically an excellent student. Not only the best of the boys in the class, Regnar was an authority in the whole school. And although at the age of 16-18, various other interests appeared and his results deteriorated significantly, he passed the exams perfectly.

“When the first literature from abroad about art in the 20th century, about radical trends in pop and rock music appeared in the newly independent Latvia, I started publishing a newspaper at school called “Steal this newspaper!”, which, by the way, was also sold in other Riga schools – because it was something absolutely extraordinary. I wrote about various art trends, although I had never seen any of them myself, only pictures, when I lived in the Soviet Union. Most of my classmates did not understand what I was writing about at all, but I wrote quite interestingly, and given my authority, they assumed that it was “cool”. But at the same time, it was a time when, encountering the outside world, I realized that people do not accept a lot from me – because I am different, peculiar, not like others and not even like in magazines. I dressed differently, but it was not the desire to stand out, to “jump out”. I didn’t need that, because I was the central guy at school anyway, it was simply my desire to breathe…” says Regnárs, adding that it annoyed, confused, even scared people. Many began to criticize him without even knowing what he was really doing and what he meant. “Basically, it has followed me up to the age of 50 and will most likely continue to follow me…”

Together with “Brainstorm”

During high school, Regnārs created his own band “Visadi kāsīti”. No one understood what it was. “It was 35 years ago, and I combined the music of the world’s peoples and the most radical trends of modern music in it. We made performances, invited those we wanted, and our concert could take place, for example, at four o’clock in the morning… We were free to do what we wanted,» Regnārs remembers, adding that even though they were invited, they didn’t particularly go to the concerts. “Seeing that the band members still have a spark in their eyes, that they would like to participate in a concert, I agreed to one, and it was right on my birthday. Being skeptical about the upcoming event, I realized that I should make it more joyful, so I called the manager of “Brainstorm” – the group had just become very popular – and invited them to this concert… We are the same age, and I knew them a little. And when the manager asked me why I thought they would come to my concert, I said that I had been to their concert… And they really came.”

In the bathroom with Crowder and Kimeli

After entering the Latvian Academy of Culture, a period of friends and parties began in Regnar’s life, including on birthdays. The most significant episode that remains in the memory is that for one birthday – the 20th or 21st – he had invited not only young people, but also the directors Olħerta Crowder and Māra Ķimeli, who were always quite youthful. “I remember that at one point I found myself in the combined bathroom and toilet with them, teaching them throat singing. Today, the way I educated the two genius directors seems even more comical to me than it was then…”

Regnar reveals that there was a period when, together with his friends of that time, he celebrated his holidays in very fine clubs of the capital. Including “La Rocca”, where once not everyone could enter and where there was a VIP hall on two floors with boxes where you could draw the curtains. “The bandits of that time rested there, the young businessmen, there were erotic shows with… a real sexual act on stage. On one of my birthdays, after seeing several beautiful escort ladies, I realized that I was missing something like that, and – I arranged for them to come with us to another club. I even agree with the pimp. It may sound like bragging, but it wasn’t a desire to stand out. I was simply interested in what such girls think, what can be talked about with them… And I must say that completely unexpectedly, the conversation was interesting, even to sincere tears. All people are already sincere if they are allowed to be…”

It won’t be more interesting

And then the time came when, realizing that it would no longer be as interesting as it was when living in Latvia in the 90s, Regnārs stopped celebrating birthdays.

“I realized that I am also very good at home, that I can have fun enough when I want. I also realized that everything has already been, that everything has already been seen – including the first illegal gay clubs that appeared in independent Latvia, and all kinds of entertainment, which in some places even mixed with debauchery – God forbid, I did not participate in them! » says the jubilee.

And then one birthday, knowing Regnar’s already skeptical attitude to celebrating, his wife – actress Madara Botman – devised a trick. “She has a group of friends who meet and celebrate with each other before Christmas. They were all gathered outside and Madara asked me to come out and help with something. In a word, after a moment I already found myself in a club that Madara had rented, and only my friends and acquaintances were there. It was extremely pleasant. I am no longer such a nerd and a bitter person who beats terribly that I don’t want to celebrate anything. It was really a wonderful event – on two floors, and everything was full of people near and dear to me…”

It lives, feels and breathes

Regnārs is spending this time in Liepāja, where the stage of rehearsals for the new production “Latviešu raķetes” has begun in Liepāja theater, which will be a documentary heroic epic with an opportunity to look into the history of Latvian bobsleigh. The director created it by interviewing 21 people close to bobsleigh, creating his perspective on the events in the 80s of the 20th century, when engineer and luge coach Rolands Upatnieks created the USSR national team in a completely empty place (there was no bobsleigh as a sport in the USSR and Latvia at that time), in which 95 % were Latvians… Premiere – February 17.

But on his birthday, wish the birthday boy to continue to develop – the way he has been doing it until now, and always remain young – the way he still feels and how his loved ones perceive him.

“I think that 95% of people who have heard about me at least once think that I’m always trying to stand out and make myself somehow, and only 5% know that I’m just like that and I don’t want to be different – that I live like that, that I feel like that, that I breathe like that. Yes, I admit my mistakes and try to correct them. I try to be kinder and more attentive not only to those closest to me, I have always been this way to them, but also to other people I meet. I always respond with kindness to unkindness, sneers and pointing fingers at the temples. Because I don’t think that anyone would harm me, it’s just that people interpret me according to their own ideas, and I don’t hold a grudge against them. And I realize more and more that I have less and less need to convince someone.”

2024-01-08 17:51:47


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