Liina Reiman

"Rambivalgus süttib" (The Spotlight Illuminates) is the 1st of Estonian actress Liina Reiman's (1891-1961) two books of memoirs and it covers her early years at the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu in 1910-11, at the Endla Theatre in Pärnu 1912-15 and the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn 1916-17.

Reiman's personal life makes for a dramatic read of itself with one Georgian student at Tartu University committing suicide after being spurned by her, her first marriage to fellow actor August Reiman and her romance with her 2nd husband, Estonia Opera orchestra conductor Raimund Kull.

Reiman provides plenty of anecdotes about her teachers and fellow actors which are of especial interest as this period was the birth of Estonian professional theatre. Her travels also include a penitential journey into the mountains of Georgia to face her spurned Georgian admirer's family and a visit to Konstantin Stanislavsky's famous Moscow Art Theatre where she attends a 1915 performance of Ilya Surguchev's "Autumn Violins" (having to buy a 2 ruble ticket to the long sold-out performance from a scalper for 10 rubles). The famous home of the Stanislavsky system of natural acting seems to have been quite the shrine and mecca for the theatre public and the audience that Reiman observes was reverently silent and did not even applaud the performance.

I'm already reading the 2nd volume of the memoirs Lava võlus (Under the Spell of the Stage) which covers Reiman's years with the Drama Theatre in Tallinn from 1917 to 1924. Sadly, her passing in 1961 cut short the possibility of a complete overview of her life story.… (more)