On the trail of Steller’s Sea Cow – Interview with director Juni Klein and scenographer Laura Haapakangas
When the Steller’s sea cow was discovered in the 1740s, it took only three decades for it to disappear from the face of the earth. Humans had not yet understood that their actions could cause biodiversity loss and drive species to extinction.
Living Things takes place in a museum space, from which, under the guidance of a museum guide who acts as a narrator, we reach into three different centuries and different parts of the world, to events that are intertwined with the history of the extinction of the sea cow.
“These themes are not very often dealt with in theatre, often the main role is played by human relationships. We were interested in how to look at the topic without blaming but without avoiding responsibility. I feel that this is a topical question in our time,” says director Juni Klein.Elolliset is based on Iida Turpeinen’s novel of the same name (S&S, 2023), which won the Helsingin Sanomat debut prize in the year it was published. The translation rights of the work have been sold to at least 28 language areas, and it has received wide international attention. The novel has been selected for The New York Times‘ recommended reading list and presented in the book club of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Museum aesthetics and epochLiving is a co-production of the Helsinki City Theatre and WAUHAUS.
An artistic team consisting of members of WAUHAUS has been planning the concept of the performance and the reality of the stage at the same time as Pipsa Lonka has been writing the play adaptation.
Klein believes that a way of working in which audio-visual thinking is included from the very beginning creates a comprehensive aesthetic and theatrical language in which meanings are constructed on multiple levels.
Set designer and costume designer Laura Haapakangas says that the audio-visual solutions of the stage are just as essential narrative means for WAUHAUS’ performances as acting. During the exercises, more time than average is spent on refining the composition of the space or light situations, for example.
Haapakangas says that the working group was inspired by the preparation of zoological collections and familiarised themselves with them under the guidance of a museum technician at the Natural History Museum in Helsinki. The performance highlights the human desire to preserve something that has already been lost.
“What is on display in the museum’s exhibition space is not the whole reality. There is also blood and sweat, so to speak, to get those things into the exhibition. Something from there will also be present in the performance,” Haapakangas says.
The Living Museum Space consists of various display cases. The starting point for the set design has been clinical museum aesthetics. “There will also be abundance and wow elements. Visually, we go from simplistic stage images to immersive and immersive views,” Haapakangas says.
Costume design has also required thorough information gathering. The costumes are strongly in the epoch and serve as the clearest element of the time. “Starting from the uniforms of the Russian Navy in the 18th century, it is challenging to find information. If something is changed to be more indicative, people want to know what the starting point was,” Haapakangas says.
Individualsin the midst of great forces In relationships and situations between humans, the living things highlight the reasons that contributed to the disappearance of the sea cow and other species.
“Now that the agreement has been made, we have read the book closely and it has strongly revealed the imperialist aspirations and commercial goals that drove people to empty those areas in an unsustainable way,” Klein says.
In the play, humour or absurdity is also written between the individual characters and the course of events.
“I think it’s an interesting starting point, because it’s such a tough topic. It is often typical for us to work in the middle ground between the tragic and the amusing, where a kind of gap in understanding and emotion is created,” Haapakangas says.
Klein thinks that there is something moving about the Westerner’s need to take over the world, but when it is combined with the pursuit of self-interest and the pursuit of profit, the result is shockingly bad.
“Still, none of the individual people in the play are evil, they are just a drop in the ocean,” Klein points out.
Text by Ida Henritius.