Updated 21 February and 1 March 2025.
It was theatre that drove Nikodemas, a love of the stage and acting that he never lost.
Nikodemas was born in Alytus, Dzūkija, Lithuania, on 14 September 1925. He attended Alytus primary school and gymnasium.
In 1944, the wave of war swept him to Germany. According to his selection papers for migration to Australia, he was “forcibly evacuated by the Germans”. This sounds like he was rounded up to provide forced labour.
When the war was ending, we find him first in Lübeck, a coastal German city once the capital of the mediaeval Hanseatic League.
By September 1946, he had moved well inland to settle in the Hanau refugee camp. Being a creative spirit, he got involved in the camp theatre activities.
Two American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP records for Nikodemas, both dated 3 September 1945 but one completed in Lithuanian and one in English, have been digitised by the Arolsen Archives in Germany. In the English language one, he is described as a ‘scholar’, while the Lithuanian one has the equivalent ‘mokinys’. Scholar of what is not explained in either, but something to do with the theatre is a strong possibility.
Nikodemas and his older brother, Vytautas, travelled to Australia on the First Transport, where Nikodemas was a member of the Lithuanian Sea Scouts. They reached Australia on 28 November 1947 after 4 weeks on board and spent time in the Bonegilla camp after a short break in Perth.
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| Nikodemas Skidzevičius identity photo from his Bonegilla card |
Nikodemas was sent to salt works, south of the Murray River, in South Australia, with 9 others on 13 January 1948. These salt works were run by SA Salt Limited of 91A Victoria Square West in central Adelaide.
The brothers were separated, as Vytautas was sent to work for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply. He was one of those who had been sent to Bedford Park camp in suburban Adelaide on 7 or 8 January.
Nikodemas later worked in construction until he started working as a decorator and painter. He worked in Woomera and other country towns.
As early as 30 September 30 1949, Adelaide's Lithuanian Theatre Lovers Group staged The First Call, a three-act comedy, in which Nikodemas had a role. It was the first Lithuanian theatre performance in Australia.
Next, on 25 November 1950, the Adelaide Lithuanian Theatre Group presented Disturbed Tranquility by P. Vačiunas. Nikodemas had a leading role in this production. The play was repeated on 6 January 1951, then again in Melbourne later that month.
The long-established Adelaide Advertiser newspaper reported the large crowd at the November performance, naming Nikodemas among the performers. The popularity of the play might be why Australijos Lietuvis [The Australian Lithuanian] detailed the plot in its ‘English section’ of 1 January 1951.
Juozas Gučius arrived in Adelaide in 1951, establishing the Lithuanian Theatre Studio. Nikodemas joined immediately and participated in its first production, along with the whole ensemble, of Viršininkai, or Brass in English.
He played several more roles in its productions. He loved the stage so much that he never refused to play even the smallest role.
Although he lived far from Adelaide then, he found time to come to rehearsals. In all the roles he took on, Nikodemas played the parts as deeply and intelligibly as possible.
According to his obituarist, Viktoras Baltutis, one of Nikodemas’ greatest achievements was the role of the Lithuanian artist in the drama Stella Maris by J. Grinius. Baltutis wrote that he gave his whole creative soul here, deeply and sensitively empathising with the character of the artist, with all his nuances.
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| Nikodemas as the artist in Stella Maris Source: Australian Lithuanian Archive |
He shone equally in the role of Simas Kudirka in the drama Jump to Freedom written by the obituarist, Baltutis. The playwright thought that complete and unconditional dedication to the characters created by dramaturgy was one of his most striking features as an actor.
The Adelaide News' theatre correspondent, Kevin Crease, reported in August 1954, that Nikodemas was about to make his first appearance in an English-language production. He was in the Adelaide Theatre Group’s production of Crime and Punishment, known to the Group and its audience as ‘Niki’.
In October 1953, the News and its Adelaide colleague, the Advertiser, carried a total of 3 articles mentioning Nikodemus. In the first, the News theatre critic, CB de Boehme, wrote on 13 October that Nikodemas’ Mermeladoff in Crime and Punishment “was an astute and deeply felt study”.
The second review, by Kevin Crease and published on 23 October, was of the Lithuanian Theatre Studio production of three English-language comedies. He wrote that Nikodemas, “as the suitor who had palpitations gave a fine performance”. The News headlined the report, "Lithuanian Group Does Well". It was, reported Crease, the first time the Theatre Studio players had performed in English.
DCB in the Advertiser of 23 October also reviewed the comedies. He reported that “The high point of the evening was The Proposal. This play, dealing with a diffident but proud suitor's attempts to propose to an equally proud woman, is a very human comedy … Skidzevicius, who is pompous and proper as well as a sufferer of palpitations, also act (sic) with great heart.”
If Australian copyright law did not prevent the digitisation of newspapers by the National Library of Australia’s Trove service beyond 1954, we might know much more about the general Adelaide public’s reception of Nikodemas’ acting talent. As it is, we are left with the obituarist reporting that he had even gained a role in the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s production of The Museum of Here and Now.
In 19 October 1970, Mūsų Pastogė published a photograph of the Vaidila theatre company, of which Nikodemas was now a member. It advised that the group would be coming as far as Sydney at the end of the month. On October 31, its members would perform the comedy Bubulis and Dundulis. On Sunday, November 1, they would perform V. Mykolaitis Putin's historical drama Valdova. A Ukrainian community hall had been hired.
Near the end of the entry, we have a photograph of Nikodemas performing in Bubulis and Dundulis in 1995, 25 years later. If it was the same part, it must have been an integral part of his life by then.
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| Nikodemas Skidzevičius is third from the left in the back row of this 1970 photograph of Adelaide's Vaidila theatre company Source: Mūsų Pastogė |
In 1983, Mūsų Pastogė announced that Nikodemas, still member of the Vaidila theatre company, was leaving Adelaide for the small town of Robe, to its east, near Mt Gambier. He had been presented with a large national ribbon at a dinner after a performance of the company’s current play, Peilio ašmenimis (Knife Edge in English).
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| Nikodemas (left) with actor N. Vitkunienė in Knife Edge Source: Mūsų Pastogė |
The reporter wrote that Nikodemas participated in commemorations, parades and other cultural events, whenever a beautifully pronounced Lithuanian word was needed.
In 1990, V Skipzevičius is said, by a Teviskes Aidai reporter using the pseudonym Pr P, to have been an actor, along with V Nekošius and the playwright, E Buliene, in two plays she had written about life in Australia called Desires and Wishes. They were performed for the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Women's Society in June. Since Vytautas Skipzevičius had died in 1983, the V must have been a misprint for N, for Vytautas' brother, Nikodemas.
This being the case, there may have been another earlier misprint when J Vasiliauskas reported in the same newspaper in 1978 that V Skipzevičius, a Vaidila actor, had read the testament of Darius and Girėnas at a 45th anniversary commemoration.
Most non-Lithuanians would not be aware of the story of Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas. On 15 July 1933, they attempted a nonstop flight from New York City, USA, to Kaunas, then the capital of Lithuania, in a single-engine plane purchased and rebuilt with the help of funds from other American Lithuanians, the Lituanica.
They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 37 hours 11 minutes. Both died when the plane crashed in Germany. The cause of the crash was said to be poor weather conditions and engine problems. They had covered a distance of 6,412 kilometres without landing and were only 650 kilometres away from Kaunas.
They have been the subject of Lithuanian stamps, a Lithuanian banknote and memorials in both New York and Chicago (where the Lituanica was rebuilt). Darius had initiated the building of the first sports stadium in Kaunas which, after renovations, is the largest in Lithuania or the three Baltic States and is named after the two flyers.
Darius and Girėnas left their testament behind in case they did not survive the flight, pledging their patriotism and calling the Lithuanian people to action.
Two months after the first 1978 report, the Canadian-Lithuanian newspaper, Teviskes Žiburiai, carried a similar story, again stating that V Skipzevičius had read the testament at the commemoration. The later story may well have been sourced from the first. If V Skipzevičius was Nikodemas' brother, it is the only recorded appearance of Vytautas in front of an audience. A reporting or editing error is more likely. Yet another Nikodemas performance is much more likely.
His obituarist, Viktoras Baltutis, reported that he was full of enthusiasm and optimism for theatre, he urged new stage works and invited younger actors to join. He loved theatre and was devoted to it. He never refused to recite or read poems during commemorations, putting his whole soul in to these too.
He also had been a member of the first Adelaide Lithuanian national dance group, performing around the city showcasing Lithuanian culture to Australians in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
He studied drawing, painted a few watercolours and later changed to wood sculpture. His only exhibition of works in wood was in Adelaide's Lithuanian House, jointly with Viliją Petruškevičiūtę-Dundienę’s ceramics, in 1993. His work was very traditional and religious, featuring a rupintojelis (a pensive christ), crosses, a vytis (the Lithuanian coat of arms, a mounted knight holding a shield and sword) and town crests.
It gave him a lot of joy and pride, although he himself mentioned that much patience and persistence was needed to create more perfect works. He had started his wood carving practice in Germany, in 1946, but amazed those in Adelaide who knew him only as an actor with this previously hidden talent.
He obtained Australian citizenship on Australia Day, 26 January 1960. This was more than 3 years after his brother, Vytautas. Perhaps Nikodemas had been too busy rehearsing and performing to apply.
Nikodemas married and had a son and a daughter. After Lithuania regained its independence, he was able to visit his father in 1991. He was able to visit again, the last time with his grandson.
In 1992, Elena Varnienė, writing in the Chicago-based magazine Ateitis, reported that Nikodemas had taken part in Adelaide’s annual Literature and Song Evening.
The last year of Nikodemas’ life was 1995, but Mūsų Pastogė reported twice that he was engaged in public artistic activities. For the celebration of Independence Day, February 16, he recited a poem, as reported in March. In April, he acted in a production of Bubulis and Dundulis in Melbourne.
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| Nikodemas (left) in a Melbourne production of Bubulis and Dundulis just months before his 1995 death Source: Mūsų Pastogė; photographer: Birute Prasmutaite |
His death on 22 August 1995 came 3 weeks short of his 70th birthday. He is buried in the Catholic section of Adelaide's Centennial Park Cemetery.
Sources
Advertiser, The (1950) ‘Lithuanian Play’ Adelaide, 27 November, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/45671297 accessed 21 January 2025.
Arolsen Archives, ‘AEF DP Registration Record, SKIDZEVIČIUS, Nikodemas’ [completed in Lithuanian] https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134310 accessed 21 January 2025.
Arolsen Archives, ‘AEF DP Registration Record, SKIDZEVIČIUS, Nikodemas’ [completed in English] https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134312 accessed 21 January 2025.
Arolsen Archives ‘War Time Card File (Registration cards, employees’ record books, individual correspondence) A-Z (SKIDZEVIČIUS, Nikodemas) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/74921279 accessed 21 January 2025.
Australijos Lietuvis [The Australian Lithuanian] (1951) ‘English Section, Disturbed Tranquility’ Adelaide 1 January, p 10 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280320124 accessed 21 Jan 2025.
Baltutis, Viktoras (1995) ‘Nikodemas Skidzevičius’ Šventadieno Balsas [Sunday Voice] Adelaide, 17 October, pp 4, 6, (copy held in Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide).
Baltutis, Viktoras (1995) ‘Mūsų Mirusieji, Atsisveikinimas su Nikodemu Skidzevičiini, 1925. IX. 14 –1995.VIII.22’ in Lithuanian [‘Our Dead, Farewell to Nikodemas Skidzevičiūs, 14.9.1925 – 22.8.1995] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-09-11-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.
Č-kas, V. (1949) ‘Pirmas lietuviškas vaidinimas Australijoje’ [‘First Lithuanian Play in Australia’] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven], Sydney, 12 October, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1949/1949-10-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.
Crease, Kevin (1954) ‘Curtain Call’ News, Adelaide, 25 August, p 16 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131250091 accessed 21 January 2025.
DCB (1954) 'Lithuanians Stage Three Comedies' Advertiser, The Adelaide, 23 October p 17 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47629322 accessed 21 January 2025.
de Boehme, CB (1954) ‘Play Explores Human Spirit’ Advertiser, The Adelaide, 13 October, p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131209992 accessed 21 January 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1970) [Untitled photograph] Sydney, 19 October, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1970/1970-10-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 1 March 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1995) 'Iš A. Rūko "Bubulio ir Dundulio" Pastatymo Melburne' Photo caption in Lithuanian ['From A. Rūkas' Production of "Bubulis and Dundulis" in Melbourne'] Sydney, 17 April p1 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-04-17-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 31 January 2025.
Naras, VS (1995) ‘Vasario 16 d. Adelaidėje’ in Lithuanian [February 16 in Adelaide] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven], Sydney, 6 March, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-03-06-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-47; 654, SKIDZEVICIUS Nikodemas DOB 14 September 1925, 1947-47; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118081 accessed 22 January 2025.
Poželaitė-Davis, Isolda (1983) ‘Juozui Gučiui Prisiminti’ [‘In Rememberance of Juozas Gučis’] Akiračiai [Horizon] March, p 6. https://spauda2.org/akiraciai/archive/1983/1983-nr03-AKIRACIAI.pdf accessed 27 January 2025
Pr P (1990) 'Adelaide,Šiupinys' ['Adelaide, Medley'] Teviskes Aidai [The Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 3 July https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1990/1990-07-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.
Prasmutaite, Birute (1995) Photograph: 'Iš A. Rūko "Bubulio ir Dundulio" Pastatymo Melburne' caption in Lithuanian ['From A. Rūkas' Production of "Bubulis ir Dundulis" in Melbourne'] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 17 April, p 1 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-04-17-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 7 February 2025.
Sv Balso and SP (1995) ‘Adelaide’ [‘A†A Nikodemas Skidzevičius’ (RIP Nikodemas Skidzevičius)] Teviskes Aidai [Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne 3 October p 6 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1995/1995-10-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.
St (1983) ‘Teatrų Veikloje, Vaidila, ’’Peilio ašmenimis”’ in Lithuanian [‘Theatre Activities, Vaidila, “Knife Edge”’] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 4 April, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-04-04-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.
Teviskes Ziburiai [The Lights of Homeland] (1978)'Lietuviai Pasaulyje, Australija' ['Lithuanians in the World, Australia'] Mississauga, Ontario, 24 August, p 4, https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1978/1978-08-24-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.
Varnienė, Elena (1992) ‘Laiškas iš Australijos’ (‘Letter from Australia’) Ateitis [Eyes], No. 6, Chicago, p 238 https://spauda.org/ateitis/archive/1992/1992-nr06-ATEITIS.pdf accessed 27 January 2025.
Varnienė, Elena (1993) ‘Bendruomenės Darbų Baruose, Keramikos ir medžio drožinių paroda’ In Lithuanian [‘Community Activities, Ceramics and wood carving exhibition’] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 21 June, pp 4, 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1993/1993-06-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 27 January 2025.
Vasiliauskas, J. (1978) 'Gyvas Didvrių Atminimas' ['Living Memory of Heroes'] Teviskes Aidai [The Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 22 July, p 3 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1978/1978-nr28-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.
Vibaltis (1983) ‘Adelaidinės pabiros’ in Lithuanian [‘Adelaide droppings’] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 4 April 1983, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-04-04-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 26 January 2025.
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