From Leningrad to Riga

THEATRE: Last week I wrote about the Veteran (retired) Actors' Home in Leningrad. I wonder whether the Soviet Union still retains this kind of 'service' to her artistes of the stage, cinema, ballet and music etc. Of course there is no Soviet 'Union' now. I have not been to any part of the former Soviet Union after it was splintered some years back.

One reads in the news pages about various States of the former Union agitating for, and even fighting for their independence from Moscow. A few people who0m I know who have been to Moscow and other parts of Russia tell me that things are quite different now.

Occassionally I meet one of our studnets studying in Moscow, Petersburg (former Leningrad) or Kiev and they too say the same thing. I believe the cities are becoming more and moe 'Americanized' and acquire all the ills that come with an aggressive and highly competitive economy.

I wonder if the people are still as friendly as they were during my stary there in 1964 and 65. I still remember young men walking the moscow streets in the winter towrads evening singing 'Aavaara Hum' - the theme song of Raj Kapoor's famous film by that name - at the top of their voices.

Yes, Raj Kapoor was quite a hero among the young chaps in Moscow at that time. So was our own Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike - symbol of oriental womanhood, of beauty, of strength and courage, to Moscovites who knew something about Ceylon.

Whatever that may be I would like to beliee that institutions such as the Gosconcert, the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre, the Mayakovsky Theatre, The All Russian Theatre Union and that Elders' Home run by them for retired artistes etc. are still intact and rendering a great service to the arts of the country and to the world at large.

Modern Russia

I wish some knowledgeable person writes a nice article about the modern Russia and its affairs to our newspapers. All we get most of the time is news about the bloody skirmishes and border clashes. The world has changed indeed and drstically too!

I have this note in my idary for Saturday, 20 March, 1965. "Rested a little in the morning. Called in at the VTO (All Russian Theatre Union - Leningrad Branch) but its Secretary, Tolstoya was out. Had lunch there and went to the Veterans' Home to give my little gift to them. (I can't remember what the gift was.

It must hae bene some tea and some slides of scenes from Ceylon etc.) It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we went to the summer park near the bay - a very beautiful place.

The Summer Hotel is situated in a palce from where we could watch the sunset. At this time of the year here, the sun sets quite late - past seven. Most of the people watching the sunset were drinking some rose coloured drink in long glasses.

I asked Valya what the stuff was. She smiled mischievously and ordered some for ourselves. It happened to be Russian champagne! The Russians call it Champansky. We siopped the lovely drink very slowly watching the dipping sunset and the frozen river Niva shimmering in the fading light. It was a mesmerizing sight.

The champagne must have been heady, Valya's face was getting pinker and pinker (I am not sure what I was looking like) and she dared me to walk ont he frozen river! I gently reminded her advice about walking on the frozen river bed the other day and suggested we get back to the hotel."

We left for Riga, Latvia the next day. We were taken to the airport by intourist transport and the airplane left on schedule at 2.45 p.m. An hour later we landed in Riga, the capital city of Latvia.

We took a bus ride to the centre. "Here, the people speak their own language- Latvian. Russian is the official language though. We were put up at Hotel Riga, the only intourist hotel in the city. It is an old six storeyed building. In the evening I went for a walk alone, in the nearby area. Here, it is not as cold as in Leningrad."

Diary note - Mon. 22, March - "I had seen the Theatre Union building in my walk last night and I walked in there this morning, with Valya, to meet the people there. We met two ladie sowrking htere. They were very courteous and filled us in with the theatre-fare available in their city that week.

The Secretary accompanied us to the State Ballet Theatre to meet Vladimir Tsukonov - a ballet dancer who had been to Ceylon. We met him, a slim red-haried man. All these ballet artistes have a distinct way of walking.

It looks as if they are about to enter a stage to dance, almost on tip toe, stomach dran in, shoulders square, head held high at a slight angle. One could always spot a ballerina or her counterpart even when they walked the streets, by their very walk.

Mr. Tsukanov invited us to his home on the evening of 26th, to see the films he had made in Ceylon, and also for a little home cooked dinner. The secretary of the Theatre Union interviewed me at the hotel restaurant, for a local newspaper.

Below standard

'Three Penny Opera' at the Academic Dramatic Theatre. It was acted in Latvian, the language of the State. The stage sets were very eleaborate and complicated but both the playing and the production was far below Moscow standards.

General Elections in Ceylon today. Posted letter home, from Riga, with their stamps."

Diary note - Tue. 23, March - No news here about elections in Ceylon. At 12 we went to the Puppet Theatre to see a puppet play for kids - 'Little Muk'. After the interval I was allowed to visit back stage to watch the puppeteers at work. It's a tremendous lot of puppets, hands and feet and frenzied timely pulls, jerks, twists, turns and the whole works!

'Giselle' at the Opera and Ballet Th. in the evening. The two leading parts were played by two visiting Bulgarian artistes - both award winners and very well-known. Our friend Vladimir Tsukonov also took a leading part in the ballet.

Telephoned our Embassy (in Moscow) in the evening for news about the elections. It apears that the UNP is leading so far, with 57 seats, accoridng to reprots."

Fantasy

Diary entry - Wed. 24, March - "An officer from the Ministry and the lady from the Union picked us up at 11. They took us on a full tour of the city which is said to be one of the oldest cities in the Soviet Union. There are buildings of the 12th century still intact and functioning.

Then we were taken to the sea coast. The frozen sea has melted now and little blocks of ice could be seen only at random. Somehow a sea is not intersting when it is frozen and calm. So is a river. They look more forbidding when they are frozen - like a huge dead body.

The shore as far as the eye could see is fringed with fir trees. We had lunch at a new restaurant overlooking the sea, opened only two weeks ago. There are innumerable summer cafes etc. on the beach.

In the evening we saw a play by the best known poet of Latvia - Rainis. It was like a fairy tale and a fantasy - supposedly symbolic of the Latvian people. They tell me that there were many bloody battles in Latvia during the war and that the region had given some of the best soldiers to the Russian war effort."

Diary note. Thurs. 25, March - "Saw the Riga State Museum in the morning. In the evening, three short plays - 'Woman', 'The Sky' and 'Hall' at the Academic Drama Theatre. The three short plays are presented in the manner of a 'road-show- by a travelling company.

The first two were very interesting, the last one a little too long. All three plays featured rascally priests of the middle ages, but without malice. After the play we took the lady from the Union, Dagmara Kimel, to dinner at the Restaurant Lunar.

Had definite news about elections in Ceylon - UNP 66 seats and SLFP 41."

Diary note. Fri. 26, March - "Shelkanchik - 'The Nutcracker Suite' at the Ballet Theatre at 12. Beautiful and moving. At 4 in the afternoon we went to the Theatre Union office.

A young amateur playwright (his profession, Draughtsman), some actors, actresses and some theatre people had gathered. Spoke to them about my impressions of what I saw in Moscow, Leningrad and Riga etc. They asked me questions about Theatre in my country.

We saw Tsukanov's film of his tour in Ceylon and my slides. We listened to Suchitra Mitra's haunting renderings of songs of the great Rabindranath Thagore which was a proud possession of Vladimir Tsukonov. A very pleasant and informal evening. From there we were invited to Dagmaa Kimel's home, which was nearby. Met her husband too.

Tsukanov and is wife also came. Apparently he had arranged his 'home cooked' dinner for us at Dagmara's. We chatted about Ceylon, her latest elections and about Theatre etc till about midnight. I sang a song from Maname and told them the story of Maname."

Diary entry - 27, Sat. March - "Went out to buy some souvenirs. At 3 in the afternoon, met some theatre people for a talk. They were interested in a play for young people. I told them the story and theme of my play 'Tavath Udesanak' which I had staged just before leaving for Russia.

They were very interested. They said they would like to have a translation in English, the musical score, costume designs and set designs etc. In the evening a new play called 'Let Him Go' by a Latvian playwright of Riga.

An interesting play, well conceived and very well written. It's story about a group of past students of a school gathering after the lapse of 15 years to fete their one time Teacher. It was moving, nostalgic and funny at times."

Thought of the week

My thought this week (29 May) is about the men and women who died of a landmine explosion deep in the Wilpattu National Park. Among them was a man I admired very much, although I had never met or spoken to him - Mr. Nihal de Silva, the author of that spellbinding narrative' The Road from Elephant Pass' - winner of the Gratiaen Award for Literature, 2003.

I was reading it for the second time and had promised myself that I am going to meet him and talk to him, after I finished my second reading. It is a great loss indeed for English writing in this country and hundreds of readers who would have been enthraled by his powerful, lucid and absorbing narrative style.

I bow my head to you, in admiration and awe, and in great distress, my unseen friend.

I wonder what it was. Was it an unfortunate accident or was it pre-planned murder ? The news reports say it may have targeted a Colombo based Tamil businessman. It may have targeted Mr. Nihal de Silva too.

His story is about an army Captain and a LTTE woman cadre who has some very vital news for the Army (to be revealed only to the top most man in the ranks) who trek through all kinds of terrain, (including Wilpattu, which the author seems to know like the palm of his hand) and all kinds of hazards and danger, to reach Colombo in time.

By the time they reach their destination, they have been drawn to each other through a love-hate relationship and the woman cadre at the last moment reveals to the captain that it is a trap.

Who knows? The enemy could have hated the man for making the 'invincible and incorruptible' woman cadre betray her organization, and worse, fall in love with a captain of the army?

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