Review: Punaorvot
The high price of the Red Orphans’ gig in Ostrobothnia
Before the first performance of the autumn season, director Lauri Maijala said a few words about our exceptional times and the evening’s play Red Orphans. The subject had chosen the authors. Silenced history demanded to be on stage.
The civil war left behind Red widows, whose position was the most fundamental to society. There was no work, no money, so no bread, and there were many red orphans. They only offered the opportunity to give their children to where there was food, i.e. to Ostrobothnia. 1,700 children were taken there.
Anneli Kanto and Maijala’s text opens up the other side of an issue that has been advertised as good through the tragedy of one family. Maijala has once again created a rich performance.
The stage has everything, music, dance, the abundance of Janne Vasama’s sets, the carnivalism of the characters, comedy through pain and symbolism in the set design, Tiina Kaukanen’s costumes and the actors’ expression.
The confrontation is visible and the exaggeration is grotesque at times.
Aarre, Lahja and Ilona live on the Second Line and play boisterously, like children everywhere. A mother (Ella Mettänen) who has lost her husband clings to an unnamed child who is breastfeeding and is unable to take care of her family. Mettänen’s character is fragile and harrowing as such.
They are used to helping on the lines, so the neighbour Elli (Riitta Havukainen) takes care of the family. Throughout the play, Elli is a rational person who guides, but also understands and comforts. Havukainen’s role is a strong image of a wise woman.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PLAY , books, sheets of paper, bouquets of flowers, all kinds of stuff hang from the ceiling, and there are chairs of different styles and crippled mannequins lying on the floor. See
is like a broad picture of fulfilled and unfulfilled wishes, which gradually narrows and condenses, and at the same time darkens.
The text raises questions, the most burning of which is the sending of red orphans to Ostrobothnia
background. The Homes for Homeless Children organisation said that it offers altruistic help.
However, the truth was political and not at all so pure.
When the performance moves to homes in Ostrobothnia, Maijala lets the zoo of the plains onto the stage, where the price of an orphan child is determined. Some are lucky enough to have sheep as foster parents who have enough softness and warmth. But the lot of others is to end up in the family of Santa Claus and the pig, where there is no day of rest.
Anna Böhm and Wenla Reimaluoto , who play the children, do a strong job throughout.
THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE rages like a storm and soon subsides, swirling in gusts of wind and striking like lightning. Movement is the element that drives the performance forward.
The strong physicality of the young actors takes a stand. Music comforts, rejoices and plays.
The only episode I was wondering about the length of was the drunken Aarre, played by Antti Autio , chatting with the audience after the intermission.
When at the end of the performance the whole cast sings Piupali paupali, alongside the little child puppet angels, you can’t hold back your emotion.