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European encounters in the
history of theatre in Finland
Mikko-Olavi Seppälä 16 Nov 2012
Finnish
Theatre and
Drama
Periphery
• In Finland theatrical performances took
seldom place, but still as a phenomenon
• 1500s court theatre (Turku)
• 1600s humanistic school theatre (Turku)
• 1700s noble-class amateur theatre
A Brief theatre history of Finland
• 1760s to 1800s: Swedish touring theatre
• 1810s to 1860s: Swedish and German
touring theatre, amateurs also in Finnish
and in Russian
• 1870s to 1890s: Swedish, Finnish and
Russian theatre of Helsinki
• 1900s to 1960s: the network of local
theatre institutions
• 1970s to 2010s: variety of the theatre field
Swenska Comoedien
The swedish theatre in Stockholm was forced to stop its
activity in the capital city and started to tour the
countryside, also Finland (part of Sweden)
Split in two groups lead by Petter Stenborg and Peter
Lindahl, whose son-in-law C. G. Seuerling took over the
enterprise
Carl Gottfried Seuerling (1727–95)
German-born Swedish actor
and theatre manager
Toured Sweden nearly 40
years, created theatre
culture
Connections to new
German drama
Widow Margaretha
Seuerling managed the
theatre and moved to
Finland in 1809
The touring theatre
continued its activity in
Finland till 1850s
Carl Gustaf Bonuvier
• Swedish-born Finnish theatre manager
• Led the old Seuerling theatre group and
took the new name Finska Theatern (The
Finnish Theatre, 1813-27)
• New German romantic melodrama,
Kotzebue & Iffland
• Built a theatre house in Turku in 1817
• First Finnish-born actress Maria Silfvan
Johann Arnold Schultz
• Livland-born German actor and
theatre manager
• moved to Finland (Wiborg) and
lead a German touring theatre
in 1824-36
• Actors from the Baltic provinces
• German repertoire: Schiller,
Kotzebue, music plays by
Weber and Meyerbeer)
Carl Wilhelm Westerlund
• Swedish-born actor and theatre manager, led the old
Bonuvier theatre in 1830–41
• Wife Finnish-born actress Maria Westerlund (Silfvan)
• Toured Finland with many-sided repertoire
• The company continued until 1854
Enlightenment and theatre
• G. E. Lessing 1760s: national theatre,
dramaturg
• Friedrich Schiller 1780s: theatre as
national educational institution
• Jules Michelet and Richard Wagner
1840s: folk theatre creates a nation
• 1800s: censorship, court theatre monopoly
Theatre effects its audience
• Dangerous entertainment
• Towards an enlightening theatre
• Information, teaching, preaching through
theatre
• Dramaturgs, critics and theatre boards
between the audience and the theatrical
performance
1840s rupture
• Bourgeois publicity: newspapers, theatres,
private societies, literature, reviews
• Idea of a national theatre
• Amateur theatre ”epidemy”
• Steam boat traffic brought foreign theatres
from Stockholm, St Petersburg, Tallinn
Helsinki theatre house in 1830s
The Idea of a National Theatre
• Zachris Topelius
• 1840s & 1850s
Fredrik Cygnaeus
1850s & 1860s
Zacharias Topelius (1818–98)
• Theatre critic and playwright
in 1842–60
• Idea of a Finnish theatre
• Wrote in Swedish
• Romantic history plays and
fairies
• Later professor of history
Fredrik Cygnaeus (1807–81)
• Initiative-maker of a
Finnish national
theatre
• Promoted Finnish
topics (Kalevala) and
Finnish language
• Professor of
aesthetics, teacher to
Bergbom and Kivi
National theatres
• Theatre produces a nation: normative
language, common history, mythology,
moral; sense of a community
• Nationalism in two languages & theatres
• Nya Teatern / Svenska Teatern (Swedish
theatre, 1860/1866)
• Suomalainen Teatteri (Finnish theatre,
1872)
J. J. Wecksell (1838–1907)
• Poet and playwright:
Daniel Hjort (1862)
• Wrote in Swedish
Aleksis Kivi (1834–72)
•
•
•
•
Poet, novelist and playwright
Wrote in Finnish
Kullervo (1859/1865)
Nummisuutarit (The Heath
cobblers, 1864)
• Seitsemän veljestä (the novel
Seven brothers, 1870)
Fritiof ja Charlotta Raa
• Swedish-born actors in
Helsinki in 1860s-1870s
• Interpreted the Finnish
national drama and
became national idols
August Westermark
• Helsingin Nya Teaternin
näyttelijä
• Johti 1870–72
kiertueteatteria ”Unga
Finska Teatern”, jonka
näyttelijät olivat
suomalaisia ja joka
esiintyi ruotsiksi ja
suomeksi
• Suomea puhuvat
näyttelijät kiinnitettiin
1872 Suomalaisen
Teatterin ydinjoukoksi
Suomalainen Teatteri /
The Finnish Theatre 1872
Kaarlo Bergbom
Ida Aalberg
Kaarlo Bergbom (1843–1906)
• The founder and
manager of the Finnish
theatre
• Dramaturg of new
Finnish plays
• PhD on German drama
• Directed history and
realistic plays
Ida Aalberg (1857–1915)
• The star actress or
national primadonna
of the Finnish theatre
from 1870s on
• Launched an
international career
Adolf Lindfors (1857–1929)
• The Molière (and
Holberg) actor of
Finland
• Worked in Swedish
and Finnish
• Manager of the
National theatre of
Finland in 1907-14
Minna Canth (1844–1897)
• Playwright, wrote in
Finnish 1880–95
• Folkplay, Ibsen-like
realism and psychological
realism
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•
•
•
Työmiehen vaimo (1885)
Kovan onnen lapsia (1888)
Papin perhe (1891)
Sylvi (1893), Anna Liisa (1895)
1870s to 1910s: Touring Theatre
1910s to 1940s: Local Theatres
Bourgeois / Socialist
Maria Jotuni
• Miehen kylkiluu 1914
• Kultainen vasikka 1918
(The Golden Calf)
• Tohvelisankarin rouva 1924
• Klaus, Louhikon herra 1940
• Huojuva talo (1964)
Hella Wuolijoki
• Talon lapset 1912/14
• Laki ja järjestys 1933
(Law and Order)
• Niskavuoren naiset
1936
• Juurakon Hulda 1937
• Niskavuoren leipä 1939
• Niskavuoren Heta 1950
1940s to 1970s: Municipal City
Theatres
1960s Playwrights:
Paavo Haavikko, Eeva-Liisa Manner, Tove Jansson
International Success 1960s &
1970s:
Manager Vivica Bandler
Director Ralf Långbacka
Radical Theatre Generation 1960s• Director Kalle Holmberg Director Jouko Turkka
1980s to 2010s:
Scattering & Integration
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•
•
•
Group Theatres became integrated
Regional Theatre Law (1969/1982)
Theatre Law (1993)
Strong state and municipal subsidy,
strong theatre institutions, versatility and
regional activity protected
• challenge: experimental theatre
Finnish theatre now
• Director Kristian
Smeds
• Writers: Sofi Oksanen,
Laura Ruohonen, Juha
Jokela, Mika Myllyaho
etc. etc.
Essay on theatre
• Compare the theatre and drama in its
historical context between Finland and
your own home country
• Readings:
Wilmer & Koski: The Dynamic World of Finnish
Theatre
Wilmer (ed): Portraits of Courage
Wilmer & Koski (eds): Humour and Humanity