Theater | A barren Soviet landscape rose to the empty school in Vuosaari – what is it all about?

“The revolution the motto of the early years was: we drive the happiness of mankind with an iron hand! Once the party says so, I believe the party.”

The Old Man (actor Sami Lanki) talks about communism and coughs violently. Different shades of gray compete with each other on a stage reminiscent of an industrial hall. A plaster head of Lenin peeks out in the corner, a toilet seat in the other. Everything has a dusty patina, even the watering can for the flowers has sand instead of water.

The monologue is by the Belarusian Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich of the work The end of Soviet man (2013), from the chapter titled From another Bible and other believers.

In his documentary book, Aleksievich studied homo sovieticus, Soviet people, and the destruction of utopia through numerous interviews. One of the interviewees was 87 years old Vasili Petrovich N., a member of the Communist Party since 1922. Aleksievich interviewed Petrovich in the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union had already collapsed. Vasili Petrovič still passionately believed in the idea, even though he had been interrogated and tortured in the clutches of the Communist Party.

Now Vasili Petrovič gets the floor in a performance in Vuosaari’s space The end of Soviet man.

Helsinki 98 group and the performance produced by Sadsongskomplex:f is the first stage interpretation of Aleksievich’s texts in Finland. Sadsongskomplex:fi is a world-touring theater group that has made several international joint productions.

The reason why exactly this monologue has been selected for the presentation from the more than eighty speeches in the book is very topical.

“I consider Petrovich’s speech to be a key monologue for understanding Russia’s current administration,” says the director of the show.

“Now those in power in Russia have grown Leonid Brezhnev during the time when the KGB was in power. They have absorbed completely different things in their mother’s milk than those who have had freedom. They believe in their own Bible, whatever it is,” he continues.

Supervisor does not want to reveal his identity because the Russian war of aggression poses many security risks.

Besides. “Can we be sure that even in Finland representatives of art, science and journalism can continue their work in peace when pan-European conservative currents take over the field?” the director asks.

So we will continue to call him just Director.

This is what we can tell about him: the Director, who lives abroad, has visited Russia often since the beginning of the 1990s, and he has had a spouse from Moscow. He has closely followed Russia and its war of aggression in Ukraine. He is also in contact with his local acquaintances, “who do understand that Finland has closed its doors to Russians, but are still hurt. From them, the restrictions fall on the people”.

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“They wanted a written declaration that the shows would not criticize the regime or call war a war.”

From 2020 He has been planning the text of Aleksievich, who lives in exile in Berlin, for a long time, and even offered it to several parties, including the Radio Theater. The World on Stage project, which encourages new translated plays of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, finally made the performance possible.

“Finnish productions from Russia are full of terrible clichés,” the director scolds. “I want to avoid them.”

The purpose would be to continue the performance series of Aleksievich’s texts in Finland.

“About the war in Afghanistan Zinc boys it’s just today. With the show, I want to explore the total worthlessness of people, how soldiers are pawns of sole rulers.”

The group did not want to perform in any traditional theater space. The space was found in Vuosaari’s former high school, the current Vuosaari distribution center.

As the stage for the monologue, the school’s former library has been staged by a famous creator of visual theater who fled Russia with his wife in November 2022 Pavel Semchenko.

Semchenko’s spouse, costume designer Anis Krodinova was caught last spring on the street and taken to the tube for three days. The reason for the arrest was not given.

The couple is now in Finland at the Artist at Risk residency. As its name suggests, the Residence offers a refuge for artists.

Semchenko is one of the founders of the Akhe Theater, which was founded in 1989 and is called the “engineering theater”. The name engineer theater comes from the fact that Akhe uses a lot of cinematic material and tricks. The theater emigrated from Russia last summer due to an investigation by the security service FSB and censorship by the current administration.

“They wanted a written notice from the director of the theater that the performances do not criticize the regime or call war a war,” says Semchenko.

Artists of Akhe are now scattered in France, Lithuania and Finland. Most recently, in the summer of 2023, the theater performed a combination of physical theater, installation and new circus at various theater festivals in Germany of Icarus. Based on the Ikaros myth, the story tells about escaping from the labyrinth that encloses the beast.

It sounds very topical.

Known for his arresting sets, Semchenko says that he is now working with documentary material for the first time.

“It’s interesting because I’m constantly trying to find new ways of working and materials.”

He reveals that At the end of Soviet man we see, for example, a Soviet documentarian as set elements Dziga Vertov films from the 1920s and 1930s.

Krodinova has dressed up and masked the show and done a few tricks for it, for example a fire trick.

in the Soviet Union born Semchenko says that he met a lot of people like Vasili Petrovich, who were bitterly disappointed by what happened to the Soviet Union during perestroika.

“I was 25 years old when the Soviet Union collapsed, it was a time of great hope for me. At last, the boring Soviet ideology was overturned. As we know, the financial collapse was bad, but there was great hope for change in the spirit.”

And is there hope for change now?

Semchenko sighs.

“I think the situation will remain like this for a long time. I hope that one day Ukraine will win and something will change in Russia.”

The end of Soviet man 15.9.-19.10. Vuosaari warehouse, Vuosaarentie 7. More information from here.