Theater review|The case of the disappearance of an immigrant woman creates a cross-section on the stage of the theater into the position of women from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the present day.
Drama
Girl in the cornfield, first performance at KokoTeatter 9.10. (premiere 4.10.) Dramatized and directed by Anna Veijalainen based on Jenni Stammeier’s work.
★★★
“Girls, who stay at home in the evenings are less likely to be raped.”
The statement could be from any century or decade. In the 1910s, the mayor of the province of Ontario also instructed women in this way, while an immigrant girl who traveled to North America in search of a better life was raped.
Director of KokoTeatteri Anna Veijalainen has dramatized Jenni Stammeir from a historical non-fiction book The girl in the cornfield – Anna Jokinen’s mysterious death (2022) at the same time, both a shocking current and historical look at xenophobia, racism and misogyny.
Veijalainen continues his strong social and feminist program line. The cross-section shows that we haven’t gotten very far from the problems in more than a hundred years.
Three actor, Pinja Flink, Cécile Orblin and Anu Palevaara spin the story of the fates of Finnish immigrants as a flexible ensemble, interpreting dozens of different characters in the story.
The personal guard is lush. There are strong dog-crofters like Satiais-Maija, i.e. keepers of clandestine hideouts, superior nobles and exploitative sheriffs.
The focus is on a 24-year-old domestic servant who disappeared in Toronto in 1913 Anna Jokinen.
Anna, who had only been in Canada for two months, disappeared on the servants’ weekly night off at the end of a dance evening organized by the Finnish community. He was found 17 days later in a corn field, almost lifeless. It was December and freezing. When rescuers finally arrived, it was too late.
How had Anna survived in the cornfield for so long?
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Anna Veijalainen continues her strong social and feminist program line.
Presentation starts like today’s media storm. Peter Salmen in glaring spotlights, the click headline of the time is being updated.
The actors throw themselves into the mystery like a whirlwind, looking for answers.
Had Anna died perhaps because of lack of intelligence and lack of language skills? Had he been sold to a porthole, used up and dumped in a field? Or was he disillusioned with his new life and wanted to die?
Through solving the mystery, a view of the position and stories of immigrant women opens up in North America at the turn of the century.
Hundreds, even thousands, of them disappeared into the unknown from Ellis Island. Human trafficking was rampant, but prostitution was often the only livelihood option for abandoned or raped single mothers.
Pinja Flink
Reduced the staging emphasizes women’s stories, which Veijalainen has woven into the work as a structuring sub-thread, such as the tragic fates of women caused by today’s abortion bans.
Authentic photographs and newspaper headlines from the beginning of the 20th century projected onto the stage stylishly enliven the show.
The show gets lighter air under its wings The epic of Ursin of the music he composed and rearranged, which reaches its final flight in the beautiful closing song.
Otherwise, the sound world of the show deserves praise for its innovation. The actors produce most of the sounds themselves, either with their bodies or with, for example, water glasses.
The more than two-hour performance feels a bit long at times, but the absorption of the story accelerates in the second act, when it takes a kind of freedom of interpretation in relation to the conclusions of Stammeier’s work about Anna Jokinen’s death.
There will never be a final answer to Anna’s death, and that is not the main point.
Starring Pinja Flink, Cécile Orblin, Anu Palevaara. Music by Eeppi Ursin. Suits Kai Salo. Lights Pietari Strait.
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