THE UNKNOWN HISTORY : BERNHARD REICH ’ S MANUSCRIPT ABOUT VALMIERA THEATRE

Abstract

Latvian theatre director Anna (Asja) Lācis and her life partner, German theatre director and theoretician Bernhard Reich, began their professional careers in Latvia and Germany in the 1920s during the period of European modernism. During the second half of the 20th century, the paths of both their private and professional relationships lead them to the Soviet Union – a place whose ideological system and theatre they remained intertwined with for the rest of their lives. Both artists were then directly affected by Stalinist repressions. In 1948, Anna Lācis returned to Latvia and began working at Valmiera Drama Theatre. In 1951, Bernhard Reich also moved to Latvia, which remained his place of residence until his death. Both internationally recognized artists were buried at the Rainis Cemetery in Riga. This article provides insight into Bernhard Reich’s unpublished manuscript titled Valmieras teātris (Valmiera Theatre), which reveals the left-leaning western artist’s perspective of the history of Valmiera Theatre in the 1950s and the 1960s as well as the art of Socialist Realism that was both surprising and, at the time, unheard of in the history of Latvian theatre.