Swastikas meet disapproval at National Theatre of Karelia in Petrozavodsk

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By Kirsikka Moring
     
      The performance of the Lappeenranta City Theatre production entitled Minä olen Adolf Eichmann (”I am Adolf Eichmann”) is just about to begin in the State National Theatre of Karelia in Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi in Finnish).
      It is not to be a live performance but a video recording.
     
The film is a part of the New Finnish Drama Festival which has brought half a dozen Finnish theatres, playwrights, and translators to the capital of the Karelian Republic, Petrozavodsk.
      The audience consists of theatre professionals from across the Russian Federation, from Moscow to the Urals.
      However, the Eichmann event is meant for ”experts” only. Members of staff are on duty at the entrances, attempting to prevent the ”wrong” people from entering the theatre.
      The ban applies to journalists in particular, and those who have already entered the hall will have leave - even the Finnish journalists.
      Initially, the performance which has been written and directed by Jari Juutinen had been invited to Petrozavodsk, but suddenly the invitation was withdrawn.
      However, later on the State National Theatre of Karelia decided to allow showing the video recording as well as organising a subsequent discussion.
     
The ban is said to be attributable to a Russian law prohibiting the public display of Nazi symbols like the swastika. The play is based on documents and depicts Adolf Eichmann’s role in the rise and fall of National Socialism.
      And yes! Nazi symbols, Nazi salutes, pompous SS leaders all abound on stage, while even Jews who are about to be sent to concentration camps are present.
      The theatre hall is being purged of unwanted people. Among those to be removed are the editor of the local Finnish-language newspaper Karjalan Sanomat as well as the students of journalism at the University of Petrozavodsk and their Finnish teachers.
      While parts of the performance of the Lappeenranta City Theatre are being shown in the hall, the director tells about the significance of the episodes. The subsequent opening of the discussion leads to a cacophony of voices, as everybody wants to speak at the same time.
     
Even the Russian theatre professionals say that they do not understand what specifically is forbidden in the video clips. The smartest ones add:” Sight unseen and without reading the text”.
      The phenomenon is similar to the debate that arose after Kristian Smeds’s direction of The Unknown Soldier based on author Väinö Linna’s novel of the same name. Everyone is speaking about something that nobody has seen.
      The management of the State National Theatre fears that the play could idolise Eichmann, and what is even worse, it could excite the neo-Nazi fanaticism of the Russian youth.
      The theatre has been contacted by Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) in Petrozavodsk. The Finns are suspected of turning the issue into ”an international scandal”.
     
During the discussion, some people suspect that the performance could transmit the Nazi spirit to the ignorant members of the audience.
      ”I am 100 percent sure that the play does not idolize fascism”, says drama director Juutinen.
      Questions are asked about guilt and responsibility through the figure of Eichmann. Is any one of us likely to be a potential Eichmann, given certain circumstances?
      ”Where does the everyday fascism of today originate from?” Juutinen asks, saying that the play has also been performed in the Avignon Festival in France.
     
”We do not have a law that would forbid theatres to perform plays analysing fascism”, says Muscovite Pavel Rubnjov. ”The State National Theatre of Karelia has made an interpretation of its own. It would be quite possible to perform the play in Moscow”, he adds.
      After seeing the video, Oleg Irkabajev-Etajn, a theatre director from the Republic of Mari El, says that it would be important particularly for the youth to see the play in order to understand what kind of destructive outcome everyday fascism could lead to.
      How is it possible to perform in Russia for example the popular Broadway musical Cabaret, which depicts the rise of fascism? The musical is swarming with Nazi symbols.
      Sergei Pronin, the director of the State National Theatre of Karelia, says that certainly Cabaret has also been performed at their theatre.
      After seeing the Eichmann video, he feels that maybe the live performance could have been staged at the theatre after all.
      Apparently, extreme caution is exercised for fear of losing the subsidies the theatre is granted by the government and the city.
     
The Festival has presented new Finnish drama, including the experimental Aniara directed by Esa Kirkkopelto and performed by the Nälkäteatteri group as well as writer-dramaturgist Anna Krogerus’s play entitled Kuin ensimmäistä päivää (”Like For the First Day”), portraying an ageing practical nurse working in the care services sector and performed by the Kotka City Theatre.
      The theme of old people is likely to evoke a response in the Russian audience.
      The minimalistic performance of the classical Greek tragedy Bacchae 2 performed by Und Er Libet, a group of young theatre artists from Helsinki, is likely to appeal particularly to local youths, as it gives space for images, changing rhythms, and emotional transitions.
      During reading and performing sessions, passages will be read from the anthology of Finnish drama that has been recently published in Russian.
      Playwright-director Laura Ruohonen and director-writer Bengt Ahlfors are present, receiving questions and requests for texts.
      Furthermore, director-writer Mika Myllyaho’s Paniikki (”Panic”) also seems to appeal to the Russian audience, while director-playwright Juha Jokela’s Fundamentalisti (”The Fundamentalist”) is considered to be a problem, as religion is something of a taboo in Russia.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.5.2009

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Finnish drama to be put on the Russian map

Links:
  The State National Theatre of Karelia
  Nälkäteatteri / In Other Spaces
  The Finnish Theatre Information Centre
  The Union of Finnish Theatre Directors
  Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi in Finnish - the city belonged to Finland during the Continuation War of 1941-44, when the occupying Finns renamed it Äänislinna)

KIRSIKKA MORING / Helsingin Sanomat
kirsikka.moring@hs.fi