The Prophecy

Rainis’ play The Witch of Rīga was written in 1928. It still reminds us today that the Latvian people must stay vigilant against threats to their freedom. The play served as prophecy for future events that Latvians faced over the course of the 20th century. The play's key ideas still resonate with us to the present day.

The final scene in the play: Dedze’s death. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

Motivation for Rainis’ play The Witch of Rīga

After returning to Latvia from exile in Switzerland in 1920, Rainis looked for new subjects to write about. He focused on the ancient legends and folk tales that addressed the history of the city of Rīga. He was particularly interested in legends in heraldic folklore about the founding and building of Rīga and events related to the Northern War (1700–1721). The legendary Witch of Rīga emerges as the focus of the poet’s imagery. The Witch manifests multiple variations, all of which are distinctive. In Rainis’ poetic treatment of these tales, he visualizes the Witch as the savior and defender of Riga in order to convey the idea of Latvia’s eternal development and growth.

In 1925, Rainis writes: “What style [should I be using]?”

He answers himself: “as an engraving.”

He envisions the work in a historical style that draws on legend and is linked to folkloric themes. Throughout his vision for this drama, Rainis develops a storyline to evoke a sense of mythology and ancient history told in lyrical-epic form, “to show that it is ours.” The theme of Riga’s continual growth runs throughout the drama. Rainis is thinking of a trilogy, the first part of which would become the drama Fire and Night, a middle part – left unwritten – called Imanta, and a final part – The Witch of Rīga.

Rainis creates a subtitle for the final element of the trilogy: One Night’s Dream. The three works are interconnected with the episodic appearances in the play by three key characters: Spīdola, Lāčplēšis, and Kangars.

These mythological characters – Spīdala, Lāčplēsis, and Kangars – were originally created by the Latvian poet Andrejs Pumpurs (1841–1902). He was a staunch promoter of Latvian culture during the latter part of the 19^th century, a period known as the “Latvian awakening.” Today these characters as Pumpurs envisioned them are considered cultural icons of Latvian lore.

The play’s main character is the Witch of Rīga – she is named Dedze (meaning burning), who is the daughter of Spīdola (the one who shines), and Lāčplēsis (Bearslayer). The setting is the city of Rīga, which is in danger of invasion. Dedze, who lives at the bottom of a legendary sea, emerges and goes to Rīga in order to defend it. Her mission is also to get to know the nature of people’s feelings – love, hate, devotion.

Premiere of the Play

The play enjoys its premier in the 1928/1929 season of the Latvian National Theater under the direction of Alfred Amtmanis-Briedītis. There is a range of different reactions to the performance in various circles of society. Some perceive it as a statement about the past that has lost its relevance. However, the work is encoded with the power of a seer of the future. During the creation of the work, no one imagined that after just a few years, it would become relevant and that exactly such events would be taking place in Rīga.

Metaphor for the Prophecy of World War II

In 1940, Latvia loses its independence. Both Russian and German troops are fighting to conquer the city. Analogous to the ending in Rainis’ play in which the main character Dedze, having turned into a seagull, sets out across the Baltic Sea to the Swedish shores, so do the refugee boats of WW II head across the sea. Long years of occupation follow. After World War II ends, the Cold War period begins, yet the dream of freedom remains. Fifty years later, the nation reclaims that freedom. However, today’s events with the war in Ukraine show us how fragile peace is and that the world must protect it.

For this digital presentation, the story of the Witch of Rīga is told through the conceptual set and costume designs of the scenographer Evalds Dajevskis, created for the Toronto production of Rainis’ play as part of the 1976 Sixth Latvian Song Festival in Canada.

Basement of the powder tower bastion at Riga’s city walls. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

The Song Festival in Canada was not only a cultural event attended by nearly 10,000 Latvians living in exile, but it also created an opportunity to draw the attention of world media and elected officials to the plight of Latvians in Europe. During the song festival in Toronto, speeches addressing the cause for freedom and independence were heard. The festival served as a platform for bringing attention to the Soviet occupation of Latvia. The theme of the celebration was “A living song – a living nation,” thereby showing that even in spite of the Iron Curtain that separated Latvians in exile and those in the territory of Latvia, the people were united through their cultural riches.

Rainis’ plays were very important for Latvians after the Second World War, because they expressed ideas about freedom and the hard road to reaching it. The 1976 production of Rainis’ The Witch of Rīga was staged under the direction of Osvalds Uršteins, director, and set designer Evalds Dajevskis.

The play emphasized the struggle for freedom, as reflected in the attack on Rīga by Tsar Peter I in 1710. It was relevant for the American and Canadian Latvian audience of that time, because the world was in the midst of the Cold War. The performance emphasized Rainis’ warning back in the 1920s that the Latvian people should be vigilant against threats to their freedom.

Visual symbols and references that Evalds Dajevskis used for his atmospheric scenography served as dramaturgical metaphors that were familiar to the Latvian public. During the Song Festival, the play was performed several times at Toronto’s 1,250-seat Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Staging of the Witch of Rīga

When Rainis’ play The Witch of Rīga was published in 1928, the 118-page long text contained not only dialogue, but also indications about the actions to be performed on stage. This is significant because the remarks by the playwright also spoke to Rainis’ specific ideas for the play’s stage design. In his commentary, Rainis left detailed remarks about how during the performance of the play the stage should look and what sort of mood should be created.

Rainis The Witch of Riga. Beginning of Act II, Scene 1.

Collaboration between Director and Designer

Before staging a play, the director must carefully analyze the text in order to discover the structure of the play and to gain a deeper understanding of the text. The director then annotates the play so that it is clear to the actor how to play that character and how to move around the stage. When this stage of development ends, the scenographer begins his work. The critical task is to visualize the atmosphere and mood of the play in order to convey it to the audience. The director and designer must think about the action of the play from a three-dimensional perspective to create a visual environment for each scene. The designer must bring the play to life within the space of the stage, paying attention to colors and other special effects to create the mood of each scene.

While the director must interpret the playwright’s instructions about the action, the set designer must use his creativity to find visual strategies to make it easy for the audience to understand the time and place of the play. As can be seen in Dajevskis’ concept designs for The Witch of Rīga, the scenographer’s charge is to create sketches and drawings, including scale drawings for all scenes. Three dimensional models help the director and the cast understand how the pieces fit together.

The scenography that Dajevskis created for the 1976 production of Rainis’ The Witch of Rīga reflects the intense cooperation between the set designer and the director in order to provide the North American audience with a fresh and powerful theatrical experience during a difficult period of Latvian history.

“Rainis’ “One Night’s Dream” is shrouded in miracles and magic. To turn such a dream setting into an actual production, the dream sequence must be created within the overall theatrical form of the play. The setting and the costumes, and the actors must be overlaid with a sense of surreal flickering and magical mysticism. The goal is not to reach psychological realism but rather a theatrical truth, a tonal structure, and a symphonic sound quality from the ensemble. Key words of the play: a dreamy lightness, ghostly fear, a sense of mysticism and anxiety. The fate of Rīga must be decided in one night, in one dreamy night,” states the production’s director Osvalds Uršteins.

Get to Know the Play’s Settings

The Town Hall of Rīga: representing the formal governing body of Rīga. It is ready to submit to any force that would ensure its privileges.

Swedish troops: these are still participating in the defense of Rīga, although the Swedish protectorate in the province of Vidzeme has ended.

Russian troops: these are under the leadership of Tsar Peter I. They are trying to conquer Rīga.

The Latvian nation: it is symbolized in the play by the people of Rīga who are fighting for the city’s freedom.

The Mythical Heroes

The play features characters from the epic poem known as “Lāčplēsis” (Bear slayer) by Andrejs Pumpurs. In Rainis’ drama Fire and Night, they portray even wider significance. The national hero, Lāčplēsis, symbolizes vitality and strength, and Spīdola is the symbol of wisdom, beauty, and culture. At the center of the Witch of Rīga is Dedze, the daughter of Spīdola and Lāčplēsis. She is the Witch of Rīga who comes from a harmonious underwater world to rise to the surface in order to save the city. She is escorted by two water nymphs – Žagata (magpie) and Cielaviņa (forest wagtail).

Get to know the play’s various phases!

Dramatic overture

The action of the play begins in a fantastic environment – an underwater kingdom in the depths of the Baltic Sea, where harmony and peace reign. It is interrupted by sounds from above. Rīga is in danger and Dedze, the Witch of Rīga, daughter of Spīdola and Lāčplēsis, is ready to emerge from the very bottom of the legendary sea to defend the city. She is also prepared to get to know the people’s feelings – love, hate, devotion. But she is given only one night to save Rīga.

Dedze begins her journey. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

First Phase of the Play

The action takes place in the big meeting room of Rīga’s Town Hall. The members of the town council and the people gather here to hand over the keys of Rīga to Russian Tsar Peter I, whose troops are stationed at the city walls of Rīga. This event is interrupted by the arrival of Dedze. With the support of the people, she expels the Tsar’s emissaries.

Town hall. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

The second phase. War action. The powers of the people have been unifed for battle. They are inspired by the spirit of Lacplesis (Bearslayer). Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

The next sketch depicts a Russian army encampment near the city of Cēsis. The tent of Tsar Peter I lights up in the night expanse. Only betrayal can stand against the strength of Dedze’s spirit, and the power of the people. Betrayal arrives in the form of the water nymph Žagata, who arrives at the camp of Tsar Peter I and convinces him to continue the fight to conquer Rīga. She tells the Tsar that she has discovered that Dedze can be killed with a silver bullet. Tsar Pēter I is thinking about other ways to subdue Rīga. He sends ambassadors to Rīga to make peace and to ask for Dedze’s hand.

Phase three. The powder tower bastion and Riga surrounded by red bands. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

Fourth phase. A battle encampment at the walls of Riga. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

Defeat can come at only one price. A number of variations of old legends allude to the fact that every so often, after a given amount of time, from the depths of the mighty Daugava river a voice will resound with the question: “Is Riga now complete? Has the city’s everlasting process of change, growth and development come to an end?” The people of Rīga traditionally respond “it is not yet complete.” If they were to answer that the process of growth was done, the city along with the people (the “tauta”) would sink into the depths of the river forever.

In Rainis’ play, this fundamental question is voiced by an apparition that appears on the streets of Rīga. If the Tsar answers that Rīga’s growth is complete, the city will sink. Dedze rushes ahead of Peter and answers that Rīga is growing! This symbolic answer is one of the key motifs of the play – Rīga will grow and develop forever. This path is endless just like the life of the people (tauta). In his 1925 notes about the creative process related to the play, Rainis wrote: “May it be pronounced that Rīga is never completed and that it never ceases to progress. That must be stressed throughout the play.”

Dedze decides to entrust her fate to Rīga. She pours a silver ball in the basement of the Powder Tower and gives it to the people of Rīga as security for her life. Peter somehow acquires the ball. He kills Dedze with this silver bullet. Rīga belongs to the Tsar.

The basement of the Powder Tower. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

The fifth stage

After completing her mission, Dedze could return to the harmonious world beneath the sea, but she refuses it, choosing a human destiny.

Fifth phase. Dedze meets her mother Spidola. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

The final scene

Dedze turns into a seagull and flies across the sea. As a symbol of freedom, she will return, bringing freedom to the nation. In the sketch, Dedze turns into a ray of light as a symbol of freedom, faith, and hope for the future. Rainis’ thinking here sounds like a vision of the future. But the vision became a reality only twelve years later. And like the seagull, refugee boats traveled across the Baltic Sea to the Swedish coast.

Lāčplēsis words of prophecy were as follows:

“Even if you aren’t able to get it yet,
This will be a step towards victory.”

The final scene of the play. Stage setting by Evalds Dajevskis. From the private collection of Peteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, PA.

Contributors:

Pēteris Dajevskis: urban planner, exhibition consultant, anthropologist, and son of Evalds Dajevskis;

Astrīda Cīrule, specialist at the The Rainis and Aspazija Summer House;

Zane Grudule, Communications Specialist for the Association of Memorial Museums.

Materials for this digital interpretive experience come from the personal collection of Pēteris Dajevskis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, and the collections of the Museum of Literature and Music, the Latvian War Museum, the National Library of Latvia, and the Andrejs Pumpurs museum in Lielvārde.

In 2022, the Rīga based publishing house “Jumava” published an art and cultural historical monograph entitled Evalds Dajevskis: 1914–1990. Written by the art and cultural historian Dzintra Andrušaite, the book includes a foreword by the artist’s son, Pēteris Dajevskis. In the book, you can learn more about the artist’s life, his art and scenography for plays produced in Latvia, post-WWII Germany and the United States and his work as a scenic artist for the Broadway stage and Lincoln Center in New York City.

The Prophecy

Motivation for Rainis’ play The Witch of Rīga

Premiere of the Play

Metaphor for the Prophecy of World War II

Other digital exhibitions

Aspazija’s postcards