Finnish National Theatre postpones premiere of King Lear by three weeks

Director felt more time was needed to perfect Shakespeare's masterpiece

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The Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki has decided to postpone its premiere of William Shakespeare's King Lear from March 18th until April 7th.
      Director Reko Lundán felt the play required an additional three weeks of rehearsal time. "We decided to resort to this rather exceptional solution in order to ensure an acceptable end result", affirms the head of the theatre, Maria-Liisa Nevala.
      Due to unfortunate coincidences, the rehearsals that were originally scheduled to start in December only commenced in January. "I feel sorry for the audiences' sake. We should have reacted to this already in December", regrets director Lundán.
      Three additional people have been moved from elsewhere in the building to help the National Theatre ticket office with the sometimes chaotic task of rescheduling of the already purchased tickets for the cancelled shows. Booked tickets will also be valid for the new advance performances set for April 2nd and 4th.
     
"I have faith in the visual aspects of the production. Despite the delay, I believe the play will captivate audiences. Juha Siltanen's Finnish translation of the drama is magnificent, absolutely brilliant", Lundán enthuses.
      According to Nevala, Siltanen's translation requires a lot from the actors. Author Juha Siltanen was specifically commissioned by the theatre to prepare a new translation of the Shakespeare classic.
      "Translating Shakespeare is always a challenge. Until the time of Yrjö Jylhä, Finnish translations always followed the strict metric verse form", Siltanen explains.
      "Adhering to the blank verse structure was artistically impossible. I have been as faithful to the original text as humanly possible. I ended up using a sort of modified blank verse composition."
      "The original English text has a sort of musical rhythm to it. I wanted my translation to underline this rhythmic aspect of Shakespeare's narration", Siltanen explains.
      The demanding title role of King Lear will be played by veteran actor Esko Salminen.


Links:
  The Finnish National Theatre (website in Finnish)

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