Interview with director David Sandqvist
When Kjell Westö’s successful novel Skymning 41 gets its world premiere in February, it will also be the directorial debut of the young Finland-Swedish talent David Sandqvist at Lilla Teatern. Here, the 29-year-old talks about his view of culture and the role of art, the magic of theatre and the echoes of the historical play in the present.
We reach David Sandqvist in Bergamo, Italy, at the end of October, where he spends his autumn vacation before the start of rehearsals. Although Sandqvist grew up in southern Helsinki, the play Twilight 41 will be his first production for Lilla Teatern.
“It’s going to be fun to work at home,” says Sandqvist and says that he “basically grew up in theatres”. Sandqvist, born in 1995 in Helsinki, graduated from the Theatre Academy in 2022 but has been directing in several parts of the country since 2019, both in Swedish and Finnish. Most recently, he directed Ronja the Robber’s Daughter at the Swedish Theatre and Pajtim Statovic’s The Heart of Tirana at the Turku City Theatre.
“It has happened that I have often been able to direct works that started out as novels, and that suits me well. I love books and literature is by far the art form I consume the most.”
Kjell Westö’s latest novel Twilight 41 was of course also familiar when Lillan’s artistic director Jakob Höglund asked Sandqvist to direct it in Annina Enckell’s dramatization.
“Making theatre out of novels is interesting because the audience often already has their own images of the plot and characters in their heads. This gives the performance an additional level in relation to the previous work. The inner vision collides with the public vision on stage.”
Sandqvist says that he, in turn, has tried to overlook his own inner images of Westö’s book and approach Enckell’s manuscript as an independent work. At the same time, Westö himself has volunteered and answered all of Sandqvist’s questions about the historical.
“In addition to being an author, Kjell is almost a scientific historian, and very meticulous about details. For me, who was born in 1995, it is valuable to hear everything he can tell us about the 20th century and the wartime.”
“Historical stories or epochal theatre are fascinating in the same way as fantasy literature. You are transported to another world with a different aesthetic and other challenges that are not our own.”
At the same time, the historical narrative is always in dialogue with the present and reflects the problems of the present.
“Dusk 41 describes how times of crisis and war change social morale and overturn old values, how difficult it is for individual actors to navigate morally under collective pressure. In our own time, we have recently seen how, for example, Finland’s entry into NATO suddenly became a matter of course, how social rhetoric has become militarized, and how the discussion about what it means to be allied with nuclear powers was never really discussed. When survival becomes the central value, morality seems to be abolished and all other values thrown out the window. I guess it was the same with the question of Finland’s relationship with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s, where the play takes place.”
In Dusk 41, the main characters, actress Molly (Saga Sarkola) and journalist Henry (Elmer Bäck), try to fight for what they believe in, but are forced to become part of a militarized social machine. Molly plays supporting roles in trivial comedies while Henry’s truthful texts from the front are not published.
“It’s interesting that both Henry and Molly fight for their ideals but lose their respective struggles. Artistic ambitions disappear in dumb comedies and the truth in the reports is censored.”
Large parts of the performance take place on a theatre stage in Helsinki during the war, and the role of theatre and art is also a central theme in the play. For Sandqvist, who grew up in a cultural family and has visited the theatre since he was a baby, it has always been obvious that art is the key to understanding. As an adult, he has noticed that it is not obvious to everyone.
“To be honest, it has been quite shocking to hear how some of our ministers today talk about culture as a kind of unnecessary luxury. I would never have thought that you would have to fight politically for culture and art. Having to argue for the usefulness and value of art is a completely foreign perspective to me. Of course they exist, but I see that art stands beyond such questions, somewhere on the fringes of society as a self-evident mirror of everything we do. There is no society without culture.”
It was natural that David Sandqvist chose theatre as a profession, and unlike many who have applied to the theatre, he has instead had to justify his love for the art form afterwards.
“On the one hand, I got the theatre life from home, especially from my father. On the one hand, I’m good at what I do, and on the other hand, I really enjoy constantly working on new, exciting projects and new colleagues. You never get bored.”
As a director, Sandqvist sees his performances as a kind of organic wholes where all components contribute something unique and valuable that should be preserved and highlighted.
“The text, the actors and the artistic team should not only serve a director’s narrow vision. The direction is also during the performance. The stage itself provides the solution,” Sandqvist says.
Rehearsals start in November and Sandqvist is looking forward to getting started with what he describes as his dream ensemble.
“I wanted Elmer and Saga in the roles of Henry and Molly. We didn’t even ask anyone else, I can admit. Working at Lillan will also be exciting. The stage and the auditorium have a strong identity of their own, which I look forward to getting to know better. And yes, theatre as an art form still has an important role in the public debate.”
Text: Janne Strang