Why did we cry at the close of the musical “Eslingena”? Because we were happy that Andrejs and Ilze stayed together, allowing their love to rise above selfish desires to emigrate to America? Because we recalled just how good life was for some in the Displaced Persons camps? Because we remembered departed friends and relatives, lost forever in the tragedy of the Latvian people?

Perhaps it doesn’t matter why we cried, or that we cried at all. The woman to my left did. She took out a tissue, removed her eyeglasses and wiped away a tear. I wiped away a tear from the outside corner of my right eye, realizing for the first time that that’s where I always get misty. I’m not sure if my daughter felt the same emotion, but I know she enjoyed the show, even singing the refrain as we left the theater: “Eslingena! Eslingena!”

Why did I cry? It wasn’t for the love story that was the underlying theme of “Eslingena.” It wasn’t longing for life in the DP camps, because I was born a decade too late. It was for once again catching a wave in that collective memory we as Latvians share, one that we perhaps too often forget.

We hadn’t ordered tickets for the show until late, after the first three performances had already sold out. But then officials of the 12th Latvian Song Festival in Canada added a fourth performance, which, as it turned out, was to be the premiere, scheduled Friday morning, July 2, in the Isador Bader Theater in Toronto.

I’ll admit I went to the show prepared not to be impressed. My last encounter with a song festival musical wasn’t wonderful. But “Eslingena” convinced me that there’s a great deal of talent on stage and behind the scenes to pull off a good show, one that not only entertains but also gets the audience to think.

A trio of talented singers carried the bulk of the show. Artūrs Rūsis from California, who some might remember from the West Coast Latvian Song Festival’s “Kabarē” show last year, played Andrejs Bērziņš, an ex-Latvian Legionnaire who finds his way to the DP camp at the German town of Esslingen after World War II. Linda Maruta Kronberga, better known as a Toronto-area rock performer, played Laila Ozola, a single woman who becomes Bērziņš’ love interest as he figures he’s lost his girlfriend back in Latvia. And New Yorker Jūlija Plostniece… Wow, what a voice! She played Ilze Krāmena, the missing girlfriend who one day shows up in Esslingen.

Directed by Gunārs Vērenieks, with libretto by Alberts Legzdiņš and Andris Ritmanis and music by Legzdiņš and Lolita Ritmane, “Eslingena” offered the audience a fairly traditional musical. The show had comedy, pathos, a love story and an ultimate message (we Latvians have to stick together). It had a dance number with three couples jitterbugging to Glen Miller’s “In the Mood,” and a chorus line number of sorts, with Latvian men singing about how they were leaving to work in Britain’s coal mines.

Putting on a musical about the DP camps was a bit risky because not everyone in the audience would have firsthand knowledge of the period. (Most Latvian schools in North America still don’t teach about the DP camps.) In fact, Legzdiņš and Ritmanis used two narrators to weave the historical thread for the audience. Played by Laimonis and Brigita Siliņš, the couple represented Andrejs and Ilze today, having returned for the first time to Esslingen and remembering what it was like in the late 1940s. At times the narration seemed more like a lecture, but it was needed for context.

Stage decoration was sparse, but was aided by a large television screen that showed photographs from the Esslingen camp at the start of each scene. I only wish the screen could have been hidden during performance of the scene, because it just sat there like a big gray rectangle in center stage.

The story of Esslingen as presented in “Eslingena” was fairly objective. We saw the good times and rich cultural environment Latvians had there, but we also saw snippets of the problems: the initial unfriendliness of the local Germans, the efforts by the Soviet government to convince DPs to repatriate, the luck-of-the-draw that sometimes were the decisions officials made about who could emigrate.

“Eslingena” brought to life a bittersweet moment in Latvian history. Their time in Esslingen, as well as in the dozens of other DP camps that dotted Germany and neighboring countries after the war, is remembered by many older Latvians as wonderful. From the stories I’ve heard and read, for those who were young back then it certainly was a wonderful time. But older Latvians may also remember the anxiety of camp life. After all, Esslingen, Hanau, Meerbeck, Wiesbaden, Insula and all the others were only temporary. Leaving—parting—was the goal. But when and where to?

At the end of “Eslingena,” the audience joined hands and, led by the actors and crew, sang again the closing song: “Vai tu vari mani tagad pateikt, Kas mums dzīvē notiks?” Can you tell me now what will become of us? It is a question that is as relevant now as it was in the Esslingen DP camp, and as it has been in much of Latvian history.

We don’t know the answer. That’s why I cried.