Tālivaldis Lasmanis
Born: 15 May 1961
Born in Ķeipene, Ogre District, Tālivaldis Lasmanis moved to Valmiera to study at and graduate from the renowned Viesturs School (1979), where his acting talent was first nurtured by teacher Zigurds Ķesteris in the school’s amateur theatre Sprīdītis. After completing his military service, he joined Valmiera Theatre in 1983, initially working as a stagehand while simultaneously training as an actor under Pēteris Lūcis. Alongside his work at the theatre, Lasmanis studied at the Theatre Faculty of the Latvian State Conservatory, graduating in 1988.
Over more than four decades at the theatre, he has developed from an actor whom directors entrusted with bright, positive heroes into an artist whose creative range extends far beyond the limits of any single acting type.
He has portrayed with equal conviction the sceptical, masculine exiles Juhans and Alfrēds in stage adaptations of Gunārs Janovskis’s novels, as well as the irresistibly charming fake godmother from Brazil, the spiritually exhausted yet divinely enlightened Ivanov, and the tragically doomed clown Fiasko, imprisoned by the illusions of youth, in productions directed by Felikss Deičs. Character roles are the field in which he allows himself to become fearless, at times transforming beyond recognition. One of his outstanding achievements in recent years is Ametistovs in Zoyka’s Apartment, who, in an instant, changes from a shabby homeless man into a masterful schemer while retaining his adventurous charm.
Known simply as Tālis within the theatre, he possesses a remarkable ability to make any situation appear completely natural—and to perform it with the same authenticity. It is this quality that makes him a favourite collaborator of directors from every generation. Lasmanis himself considers Felikss Deičs to be the director who has had the greatest influence on his artistic development. Among the younger generation of directors, his collaboration with Reinis Suhanovs has proved especially successful. In Suhanovs’s production about Mark Rothko, the director succeeded in stripping away many of the actor’s protective layers.
Most recently, Tālivaldis Lasmanis has added another distinguished role to his repertoire—Jacob in director Inese Mičule’s production of Joseph and His Brothers, a production that has become a landmark in Latvian theatre. In this role, the actor has discovered new shades both in his expressive means and in his interpretation of Jacob as a whole. In an outwardly restrained and understated performance, Lasmanis leads audiences into a new depth of emotional vulnerability.
“Tālivaldis Lasmanis’s patriarch Jacob, dressed in a blue tracksuit (blue—the colour of the brothers’ swimming trunks as well—is the colour of divine chosenness and faithfulness), embodies a strict coach who can bring his entire team into line with a single glance, while also portraying a father whose love everyone longs for. The actor conveys both the deeply understandable concern for his favourite son and the sense of guilt towards his other, less beloved sons, as well as a certain awareness of being chosen. In the scene of blessing and cursing the brothers, he is simply and unshakably convinced that the spirit speaks through him.” (Henrieta Verhoustiska, Rainis’s Selfie in the Swimming Pool, KDi, 12 October 2023.)
Tālivaldis Lasmanis was appointed an Officer of the Fourth Class of the Order of the Three Stars in 2012 and received the City of Valmiera Municipality’s “Valmierian of the Year” award in 2010.
