Review: Kirje Siperiasta

The Siberian letter is worth opening

On the top floor of the Amos Anderson Art Museum, there is a space for small-scale theatre performances in the attic. The monologue Letter from Siberia, interpreted by Lilga Kovanko, comes close to the viewer in a space framed by brick walls. The set design and costumes are by Sari Salmela.

The text translated into Finnish by Anneli Mäkelä is based on the story of Finnish-born Elna Sundgren, who grew up in Russia, and which has been told by Christian Sundgren in his book Brevet från Sibirien. The performance is directed by Milja Sarkola. The Finnish-language premiere was on 15 February, and all 20 performances have been scheduled for five weeks.

In the performance, Lilga Kovanko starts with a small letter. The story evolves from the story of one citizen to the collective story of grief of the entire nation, in which a loved one disappears, the information sometimes comes much later, and its reliability is questionable. Even if Elna were to come to Finland in 1917, she would not leave.
He is bound by his family. Later, when he had a new opportunity to stay in Finland, he would be bound to Russia by two graves: one he would know, the other he would not.
The latter is from the time of the worst purges in the late 1930s.
Kovanko interprets the great unknown, the theme of uncertainty, with incomprehensible finesse and deliberately in its subtlety.

This story of a Russian drowning in crowds of people has been read many times, even seen, but now Lilga Kovanko brings it to the viewer’s skin in a stabbing way. Kovanko’s gestures are sparse. He breaks down his speech with a sharp ear like a Russian. Kovanko, who grew up in Helsinki, has Russian roots that most obviously help this actress to structure the nuances of the narrative both in language and in her attitude to the facts of the narrative – all the way to the joy caused by Stalin’s death.

Sari Salmela’s costumes and set design are just right, nothing is missing and there is not too much. The proposal refers to the political climate in Finland in the early 1950s. It even questions our ability to judge, even though the time of our lives is very different now.

Lilga Kovanko’s restrained and empathetic narrative is not thought of as a role from the very first moments. A woman wearing a scarf in her Soviet-style jumper jacket tells the story, and it is as if she is there, in front of the audience.

This presentation is not to be missed. It’s wonderful how a grand interpretation is made on a small scale.