Review: Omaksi kuvakseen
– –
Saarikoski and the City Theatre
After the premiere ofT uija Töyräs’s play Omaksi kuvaksen,
that Pentti Saarikoski of the Helsinki City Theatre
tradition continues honorably, and
beautifully.
The tradition is actually unusually
long. In the early 1960s, Saarikoski’s excellent use of colloquial language made him
the favourite translator of the stages. He translated such dates into Finnish
such as Max Frisch’s Arsonists or Arnold Wesker’s
Roots.
His
However, his interest in the play was literary in nature.
He discussed with director Sakari
Puurunen after translating John Osborne into Finnish
Luther, but he didn’t even bother to visit
to see a performance at the People’s Theatre-Workers’ Theatre, the City Theatre
predecessor.
Play
was twenty years later, when the City Theatre performed his
his translation of Ibsen’s Peer
Favorable. The director of the performance, Ralf Långbacka, was
involved in the work already in the early stages of the translation and divided the main character into two
Esko Salminen played the old Peer and Jukka-Pekka Palo the young Peer. The same solution occurs now
Töyräs in the play.
Saarikoski participated in the
to the work of the theatre all the way to its final stages. He sat in practice on the ramp
on the other side, polishing Salminen’s and Palo’s lines to the last
until then.
As a result,
was a great success. Critics thought it was full-fledged
dramaturgical translation that physically reached the audience.
Critics bet on Långbacka’s direction
audience success, which was right: Peer Gynt went
At the City Theatre for more than a year after Saarikoski’s death. See
was performed 145 times and received 125,000
spectators.
While working, Saarikoski lived in
in the guest room of the theatre house and gained a position as a kind of mascot of the theatre.
His poor and booze-eaten figure radiated a strange
charisma. So after his death, the people of the theatre organised a magnificent
a memorial celebration in which the actors recited and dancers danced to his
poems.
Performer of the lead role in a play
Oskari Katajisto is so young that he was not
At that time, he was still involved. But he has later adopted Saarikoski’s interpretation
sometimes when reciting his poems in the foyer of the theatre, sometimes
simulating the visit of the deceased Saarikoski to the Lahti Poetry Marathon.
Strong identification with Pentti’s Narcissus
character supported his excellent interpretation of Töyräs’s
in the play.
I wonder what
Saarikoski should have kept Tuija Töyräs
play?
Saarikoski’s distant relationship
The theatre began to warm up in the 1970s, but it really melted away when he lived
In Sweden, where he began writing radio plays. Paula
Paavolainen has shown that he consciously experimented with different
Types of dramas: Töehovian theatre, ancient play of fate and finally
play in which “the stories intersect, interrupt,
disturbing”.
In Töyräs’s play, there is a distant
a reference to ancient drama, as there is a choir humming in Greek in the background
The Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word.” Suitable for Saarikoski, whose
key concepts were the Greek logos , as well as the
pagan and Septuagint Christian
meaning.
Töyräs
is the closest to the type where the stories intersect
each other. The many time levels of his drama are skilfully placed together
in the only space, a mental hospital, in the detoxification treatment of which the
Saarikoski’s childhood, family, church and early years
relationships.
Radio play is a different kind than
comprehensive theatre, which Saarikoski did not have time to try himself.
Shortly before his death, however, he
was puzzled by a play about Edvard Gylling, which Långbacka
had been commissioned by the City Theatre. It was supposed to become a portrait of the Soviet Karelian
a civilized leader who fell victim to Stalin’s persecutions.
Perhaps he would have used the
the same kind of montage as Tuija Töyräs in the City Theatre’s play now.
that Pentti Saarikoski of the Helsinki City Theatre
tradition continues honorably, and
beautifully.
The tradition is actually unusually
long. In the early 1960s, Saarikoski’s excellent use of colloquial language made him
the favourite translator of the stages. He translated such dates into Finnish
such as Max Frisch’s Arsonists or Arnold Wesker’s
Roots.
His
However, his interest in the play was literary in nature.
He discussed with director Sakari
Puurunen after translating John Osborne into Finnish
Luther, but he didn’t even bother to visit
to see a performance at the People’s Theatre-Workers’ Theatre, the City Theatre
predecessor.
Play
was twenty years later, when the City Theatre performed his
his translation of Ibsen’s Peer
Favorable. The director of the performance, Ralf Långbacka, was
involved in the work already in the early stages of the translation and divided the main character into two
Esko Salminen played the old Peer and Jukka-Pekka Palo the young Peer. The same solution occurs now
Töyräs in the play.
Saarikoski participated in the
to the work of the theatre all the way to its final stages. He sat in practice on the ramp
on the other side, polishing Salminen’s and Palo’s lines to the last
until then.
As a result,
was a great success. Critics thought it was full-fledged
dramaturgical translation that physically reached the audience.
Critics bet on Långbacka’s direction
audience success, which was right: Peer Gynt went
At the City Theatre for more than a year after Saarikoski’s death. See
was performed 145 times and received 125,000
spectators.
While working, Saarikoski lived in
in the guest room of the theatre house and gained a position as a kind of mascot of the theatre.
His poor and booze-eaten figure radiated a strange
charisma. So after his death, the people of the theatre organised a magnificent
a memorial celebration in which the actors recited and dancers danced to his
poems.
Performer of the lead role in a play
Oskari Katajisto is so young that he was not
At that time, he was still involved. But he has later adopted Saarikoski’s interpretation
sometimes when reciting his poems in the foyer of the theatre, sometimes
simulating the visit of the deceased Saarikoski to the Lahti Poetry Marathon.
Strong identification with Pentti’s Narcissus
character supported his excellent interpretation of Töyräs’s
in the play.
I wonder what
Saarikoski should have kept Tuija Töyräs
play?
Saarikoski’s distant relationship
The theatre began to warm up in the 1970s, but it really melted away when he lived
In Sweden, where he began writing radio plays. Paula
Paavolainen has shown that he consciously experimented with different
Types of dramas: Töehovian theatre, ancient play of fate and finally
play in which “the stories intersect, interrupt,
disturbing”.
In Töyräs’s play, there is a distant
a reference to ancient drama, as there is a choir humming in Greek in the background
The Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word.” Suitable for Saarikoski, whose
key concepts were the Greek logos , as well as the
pagan and Septuagint Christian
meaning.
Töyräs
is the closest to the type where the stories intersect
each other. The many time levels of his drama are skilfully placed together
in the only space, a mental hospital, in the detoxification treatment of which the
Saarikoski’s childhood, family, church and early years
relationships.
Radio play is a different kind than
comprehensive theatre, which Saarikoski did not have time to try himself.
Shortly before his death, however, he
was puzzled by a play about Edvard Gylling, which Långbacka
had been commissioned by the City Theatre. It was supposed to become a portrait of the Soviet Karelian
a civilized leader who fell victim to Stalin’s persecutions.
Perhaps he would have used the
the same kind of montage as Tuija Töyräs in the City Theatre’s play now.