Breaking the language barrier
Minttu Mustakallio and Tuukka Leppänen, the great favourites of the Finnish theatre community, will take on a new challenge for the autumn: they will both play the lead role in another Finnish language on the stage of Lilla Teatern.
Minttu Mustakallio is facing the opening of Lilla Teatern’s 80th anniversary autumn, the classic Män kan inte våldtas (in Finnish. A Man Can’t Be Raped), which, after almost five decades, will finally have its Finnish premiere. In the play based on the novel published by Märta Tikkanen in the 1970s, Tova Randers (Mustakallio), who is celebrating her 40th birthday, becomes a victim of violent rape and decides to take justice – or perhaps more accurately, revenge – into her own hands.
The subject matter is heavy, but director Sara Giese has also found its light and comic nuances in Tikkanen’s text. Mustakallio is excited about the upcoming role, for many reasons.
“It feels refreshing to be able to do theatre in Swedish. Why don’t we Finnish-speaking actors do it more often?” he asks.
Mustakallio’s Swedish-language debut was already a few years ago on the stage of the Swedish Theatre, and Swedish is not completely foreign to the language-loving star anyway. He likes to throw himself into new worlds through languages.
“It was a great experience to break down the wall that we Finnish speakers often have towards the Swedish language. We can do much more than we imagine, we just have to dare.”
The most difficult moments in acting in another language are those moments when your thoughts are interrupted on stage and the lines suddenly disappear from your head. All the actors are familiar with the situation.
“In Finnish, it’s easy to quickly find substitute expressions that can save the situation and continue the performance. In a foreign language, those expressions don’t always come right away.”
Conversations with the Whisperer
Tuukka Leppänen will also take the stage at Lillan as the main character in the beloved Irish musical Once, directed by new artistic director Jakob Höglund. In October, the Nordic premiere of this play, which has been a huge success on Broadway and in the West End, will take place.
“I had wanted to be involved in the musical Once for a long time, and when the opportunity arose to do it in Swedish, I thought that we would do it in Swedish. It was also a great opportunity to learn Swedish properly.”
Leppänen started practicing lines and rehearsing songs translated into Swedish already in the spring. She approaches the new language with curiosity and determination, and has also taken private Swedish lessons.
“At first, there were challenges with pronunciation and pacing,” Leppänen says. “We have done conversation exercises with Lilla Teatern’s whisperer Ragni Grönblom so that I could develop a natural sound. The goal, of course, is that the audience doesn’t notice to think about language at all.”
“Text is encoded in the body”
While Mustakallio likes to throw himself into the embrace of a new language, Leppänen’s method is more school-like. She says that she prepared for a Russian-speaking role in the same way.
“Even then, I took courses and discussions until the language settled. I’m not saying that it’s perfect, but it’s been nice to learn Russian as well. And now let’s take over Swedish.”
The determined professionalism of his younger colleague makes an obvious impression even on the multilingual Mustakallio. Do the actors experience changes in their gestures or facial expressions when the language changes?
“I notice that I wave my hands more when I speak French or Spanish,” Mustakallio admits. “When I speak Swedish, I haven’t noticed a big difference in myself, though.”
Leppänen approaches the matter from a different angle.
“It doesn’t really matter to me in which language you pronounce the lines once you’ve learned them. It’s like the text is encoded in the body, and I can focus more on the movements or, as in this case, on playing the guitar and singing.”
Text Janne Strang