GYTIS PADEGIMAS, THEATRE DIRECTOR: ARTISTS ARE NOT THE ONLY BOHEMIANS

In your opinion, what is bohemian lifestyle? Does it still exist?

I have never been one of the bohemians. But as a director, I was observant: I've seen a lot of such life in my childhood and read a lot about the pre-war bohemians.

I was raised among medics. They were not artists, but they liked parties with incredibly beautiful songs, parodies and poems. So, this life was characteristic not only to artists. I can say that I have known the bohemian medics and militia. It did not include artists exclusively. I also know prude artists (I won't tell their names) and I know people that have nothing in common with bohemians, but their heads are up in the clouds.

It is hard to say whether bohemians exist now as well. I think that they don't. Everything is overtaken by technology, people become strangers. People do not have time and desire to communicate directly, organically. They prefer second-hand synthetic entertainment and look at what others do. And during the Soviet times, in my youth, the life in theatres was more informal and active. Now whenever I get to be in theatres of Kaunas and other cities, everyone walks away so quickly. Earlier people wanted to meet and communicate for as long as possible. Maybe because there were fewer opportunities during the Soviet times. It is paradoxical that the more opportunities there are, the less people use them and simply become lazy. And the fewer options, the more you fight for them.

On the other hand, life is very intensive so there is not much time for it. The struggle for existence and rush takes up a lot of time, and there is no time left for people and all sorts of shenanigans. Moreover, in a consumer society, most behave and do things that are rational, clever, bring profit and benefits.  Bohemianism is a completely different thing. We managed to eradicate the points of bohemian life. And it was destroyed not during the Soviet times, but within the last 25 years. The entire centre of Kaunas, all architecture... A lot of people of the older generation that connected us with the bohemianism and its traditions are gone. Such initiatives are nice, the intention to revive it, the interest in it.

What is your relationship with Kaunas, and Laisvės Alėja?

I am a Kaunasian. I have been working in [theatres] of Kaunas since 1973, I directed my first performance when I was a third-year student... So, my all life is here, at the corner of Ožeškienės Street and Laisvės Alėja. I remember how it looked like. Now this part of Alėja is very deformed. And there was the Jewish Bank, and fabric store on one side and café on the other one. A gallery of buildings made Laisvės Alėja look mysterious, gave it volume and space. My school is also deformed (it looked completely differently back then). When I was studying here, all generations had a tradition to plant oaks around the school. They were all chopped off later. This precise corner was the most pleasant place. And, Miesto Sodas, of course.

Even though you have mentioned that you do not partake in the bohemian lifestyle, do you remember some stories about it?

I remember the bohemian characters: let’s say the [scenographer Liudas] Truikys, the famous painter with a beret, his wife Marijona Rakauskaitė (even though the opera singer and the stenographer were not officially married) with long blue hair. I remember the doll doctor, there was this old man who used to go with a bag full of dolls without heads or legs. Everyone called him a doll doctor. He was a pre-war character.

Pantomime group of Giedrius Mackevičius: they were also unique characters. I remember them walking with dyed hair when I was still at school. They frightened citizens of Kaunas very much. They looked very very scary.

I also remember and maybe this is not the case of bohemianism, but the cashier of Kaunas Drama Threatre Danutė Gancevičiūtė had a salon. In her home at the Old Town, she hosted soirees, invited various people. Some of them used to read a report, for example, about Salvador Dali. There was no alcohol, just conversations and songs. It is hard to believe that this can happen. There was a tradition during the Soviet times that older actors Laucius, Kuberatvičius (who knew how to have fun) used to go to home of Juozas Grušas. There used to be parties...

And what were the places for bohemians to gather?

A usual place for bohemians was Laumė, a café next to the theatre, for them to [spend time] sitting on the windowsills. You could meet young Gintaras Patackas and Kęstutis Navakas and what not. I think you need to talk with the director of Kaunas Artists' House of that time and the mother of real bohemian inventions Dalia Teišerskytė. When she was the director, a lot of things happened there. This was the time of the thaw. Sculptors and painters used to gather there...

I remember when I established the chamber theatre precisely during the Soviet times. Poets like Kęstutis Navakas and Radzevičius used to gather there. We have a performance that we showed only in winter, because it required snow. The snow was bulldozed from a hill. The performance used to take place in a café, the audience used to sit around the tables. There was a separate group after the performance: Jurga Ivanauskaitė at some point, also Dalia Ibelhauptaitė and Dalia Teišerskytė herself. But they were not bohemians. We simply spent time after performances.

This one time, we drove from Kaunas to visit the grave of poet Mačernis in Šarnelė. When we left the highway, one poet sat on the bonnet, another on the roof and we drove this way across the entire Samogitian part, and Dalia Teišerskytė was driving. When Dalia Teišerskytė was the director of Artists' House, such informal, weird and interesting things used to happen.

Interview by Laura Spranaitytė.