Theatre
Pilvede värvid
Not translated into English
Jaan Kruusvall · 1983
Synopsis
A farm by the sea, on the north coast of Estonia, in the months of 1944 when the front is drawing near. The children of a peasant couple wonder whether to cross the sea to the West or to stay and fish and plough; one after another, they consider leaving, while the father and mother worry for them, for themselves and for the land that cannot be taken along. The whole play rests on this waiting and on this choice.
Context
The play was premiered on 8 September 1983 at the Tallinn Drama Theatre, in a staging by Mikk Mikiver, and appeared in book form in 1986 with another play by the author. To speak openly, in the midst of stagnation, of the flight of Estonians to the West in 1944 was then an event: Mikiver's staging, performed more than two hundred and fifty times, has remained in the memory of Estonian theatre. In 2017, Rasmus Puur drew from it an opera premiered at the Estonia theatre, which transposes the characters to another era.
Who it is for
A play in Estonian, never translated into French or English. It is necessary to know that in 1944 part of the Estonian population fled by sea before the return of the Soviet army.
Prizes and reception
Juhan Smuul Literary Prize in 1984; regarded as one of the founding texts of Estonian theatre, it brought its author into the history of the stage.