Review: Maratontanssit

Marathon dances, a prophecy in the cultural sector?

If possible, I will follow the live drama broadcast from Parliament on Thursday afternoons, the government’s question time. And so it was yesterday, on Thursday 18.4. The topics discussed were the shrinking social security, the dismantling of health care and the worsening situation of the underprivileged and students. Some of the opposition’s speeches hinted that even tougher times were coming. The poor are squatted and the bread queues are getting longer.

What could have crowned dark ideas better than Marathon Dances, the universal gospel of poverty, performed on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre.

Marathon Dances is based on Horace McCoy’s novel Shooting Horses from 1935 by Horace McCoy, a prolific American screenwriter. It was made into a film by Sydney Pollack in 1969. As a theatre performance, it has been a success all over the world, including in Finland since 1981 (Kom Theatre).

The book, the film and the theatre performance tell the story of how a new form of entertainment, dance marathons, emerged in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The dancing could go on for months, with rest breaks lasting ten minutes. In between, there were races, commercial breaks and even weddings. The last couple to survive won the dance and received a whopping 1000 dollars as a prize.

In other words, a touching description of where poverty and deprivation lead a young person. Within the framework of the government’s spending limits discussion, the choice of repertoire is like a fist in the eye for this time when the poor are being turned into poverty. Heidi Räsänen’s direction and dramaturgy, Vilma Mattila’s  set design concept and Elina Kolehmainen’s costumes said a lot.

Marathon Dances is a study project carried out in cooperation with the Degree Programme in Acting at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. It is difficult to say which will benefit more, the City Theatre or the University of the Arts. The performance was so great that at least neither of them loses. The stage is bustling, shouting and dancing with about twenty future theatre makers, perhaps the stars of Putous in the next few years. After all, we already saw an episode of First Date at the Altar on stage.

The warty ladies in the audience were pleased that promising new actors are on the way even when the cultural budget is being cut. Someone still dares.