Maybe best night of my life…

We are in Helsinki, Finland. How many people can say that they’ve experienced Finland? It’s amazing. I spent the day exploring the city on foot: seeing the Lutheran and Orthodox churches, shopping in the market and snapping pictures of the Finnish fall colors.

Finland has a very busy National Theater in Helsinki. It has four stages and rivals London theater even though the population of the whole nation of Finland is half that of London. Finns see more theater productions per year than any other nationality. A dramaturge gave our group a tour of the theater itself this afternoon in anticipation of the upcoming shows we would be seeing.

14 of the 47 people in our group went to the theater tonight to see the Unknown Soldier. We will all go tomorrow night to see Coffin and the following night many will see God is Beauty. You may be wondering how we are seeing theater in Finland when we probably don’t speak, read or understand Finnish? Good question. The only thing I know about Finnish is that it is unrelated to other Scandinavian languages and maybe linked to Estonian. Kiitos means “thank you” and Moi is “hi.” We are brave enough to see plays in a completely foreign language.

The Unknown Soldier is based on a novel written in the 1950’s about Finland’s involvement in WWII. I actually did a presentation on Finland in WWII a few days ago… The Soviet Union invaded Finland and won territory that the Finns tried to get back by calling upon the Nazis and invading the Soviet Union. The Finns lost again and then had to fight the Nazis to get them out of Finland. Fighting patriotically was always seen as heroic in Finland until this novel came out about Finland invading the Soviet Union. The novel was a realistic reflection of the atrocities of the war and war in general. It was considered completely scandalous as it seemed to take away honor from veterans. For that reason, everyone read it. It really became the way that Finns viewed war. It became known that soldiers and commanders did horrible things in war that ended up being useless.

The play is a deconstruction of the novel about 50 years later. It is very pacifistic in its portrayal of war. The Unknown Soldier is directed by Kristian Smeds, an internationally renowned Finnish director. He used multimedia in ways I had never seen before in theater and left each of us impressed after 3 and a half hours.

Ok…to the highlight of my night. The dramaturge told us that the soldiers were going to choose some women from the stalls (seats on the floor near the stage) to dance with them on stage. I was kind of bummed when my seat was up in the balcony but I eyed the seats below just in case there were empty ones. From my seat, I saw an empty spot in the third row on the side aisle and I told myself that I would try to sit there after intermission if the dancing didn’t take place in the first act. I did so and got to sit in the third row for the second act.

I was waiting and watching… then the actors stepped towards the front of the stage and were looking out at the audience searching. The next thing I knew, one of the main actors was leaning over me. He said, “moi,” and I replied with, “moi.” Then he said something in Finnish to which I replied, “Do you speak English?” He said, “Yes. Would you like to dance?” Of course I said, “yes.” So we went onstage (ONSTAGE!!!) with the other actors and women they brought on stage and danced to techno music. He said that it would be more hopping then dancing…it was a mix.

The experience was very surreal because I was onstage dancing with a top Finnish actor and kind of chatting with him while the whole theater is still watching the play. I became a part of the play? It was so fun! He asked where I was from and what I was doing here. I told him that I was from California and studying WWII among other things. After we got done with the congo line, he said, “World War II, this is about WWII.” I said, “I know!” (maybe you should ask me to re-enact this to see what I mean) We danced some more then he thanked me and said I did well and showed me to the stairs to go back to my seat.

How fun is it that I got to dance onstage with the Finnish actors from the premier play of Finland? At the very end of the play, the actors were bowing numerous times-like most plays. And after a few bows, my dancing partner nodded to me and smiled as I smiled and waved. I felt very special and so glad that I moved seats for this chance.

Another girl from my group was also chosen to dance, so we got to share a little moment. Our other friends that were at the play were excited to talk to us afterward. They expressed how funny/exciting it was to see their friends onstage dancing. Maybe they were a little jealous… Actually, they were really happy that we got to do it.

Well, that’s my little claim to fame. 15 minutes and it’s over. But I had so much fun and will keep my eye open for more special opportunities to personalize this large experience of Europe.

On a more thoughtful note, I was hoping to get more insight into ideas about war because that is obviously a theme of my trip. This play was clearly pacifistic as it showed the horrors of warfare from the officer-soldier relationships to fighting on the frontline. I understood more at the beginning because the action went from order towards chaos. There was much commentary on current politics, but mainly Finnish affairs which I didn’t completely understand. It is also important to take into account the recent shootings in Finland, the first of which took place right after this violent play opened last fall.

Overall, the meaning I got from this production was the dehumanizing effect of war. The soldiers saw their enemies as machines an, in the end, destroyed just to destroy. Anarchy or chaos seemed to be the only way out for them. For me, the challenge will be to figure out how this play fits in with the other things I have been learning about war and to possibly synthesize my ideas in a creative project for my art class. Hmm…

I don't think I've written about Sweden yet...I was really busy because my Danish friend Susanne visited me in Stockholm. I'll have to go back to write about Amsterdam and Stockholm...

To be continued...