ANNELI KURKI

Text-hatchery to the aid of new plays

The Finnish play is in good health. Or so one might infer from the theatre statistics. Last season, 43 per cent of tickets were sold for Finnish plays, almost half of all premières – a total of more than 60 – were Finnish.

But there could be even more plays in more forums, and there is also room for improvement in quality.

Last year, writers and theatre workers began together to consider opportunities for improving the conditions in which writers work. Active in the ideas sessions were the KOM Theatre and its director, Pekka Milonoff. Adapting foreign models, a plan was made for a text-hatchery. The idea is to create conditions in which writers are able to develop their ideas in conjunction with theatre workers and in which new contacts will be made, through which the works will reach the stage.

The KOM Theatre has worked as a developer and performer of new Finnish drama for almost 30 years. Over the past ten years, the theatre has produced Finnish premières every year. The theatre was rewarded for its work by the Suomi Prize in 1998, and in 1999 it was chosen as Theatre of the Year.

A conscious change in the theatre’s working habits was made ten years ago.

‘We made a policy choice at the KOM Theatre in the early 1990s,’ says Pekka Milonoff. ‘We decided to focus the repertoire on Finnish works and to work in collaboration with writers from a new base.

‘The need originated from the overall theatre situation. There was an unusual number of interesting young playwrights, and very few forums for new plays. We thought that a small theatre could deepen collaboration with writers in such a way that the entire ensemble could participate in the development of a text. Younger writers such as Reko Lundán, Juha Lehtola, Laura Ruohonen and Harri Virtanen had already learned at the Theatre Academy to work with this method, in which the actors and the director participate in shaping the text.

‘For the actors, the change was not easy. It has taken our group years to find a way of working that is useful to the writer. For the actors, it demands a new attitude to work and the ability to see the play as a whole, beyond their own role.

‘In the premiéres of Finnish plays we have produced over the past ten years, we have sometimes started with an almost complete text, sometimes, in extreme cases, from six sheets of prose, ideas and characters sketches.’

Why, then, is it necessary to invest so much effort in new Finnish drama?

‘Without new Finnish drama, Finnish theatre cannot develop,’ says Milonoff. ‘New plays address themes and matters which concern writers and audiences here and now. There develops an image of humanity which is contemporary, recognisable.

‘For example, there has been quite a revolution in women’s and men’s roles. The traditional hierarchies and power-patterns have moved in a more egalitarian direction. It has been necessary to find a language with which to take the new situation under control. It is a question of a bigger change, a society in which hierarchies are crumbling.

‘One of the great areas of change is humour, which is more self-ironic and more intelligent than before. Texts have become more multi-level, genres are played with. The new audience generation is particularly receptive to these characteristics.’

The KOM Theatre’s policy on Finnish drama has enticed about ten new texts into the theatre a month. Among them are interesting ideas that are capable of development, but there have been insufficient resources to do so. The KOM Theatre knew that the situation in other theatres was just as awkward. There are fewer dramaturges than before, and the demands of profitability do not encourage risk-taking, working with a half-finished text where the end result is uncertain.

Something had to be done in order for a promising group of authors and ideas not to disappear beyond the reach of the theatre.

‘The text-hatchery is not being founded only to meet the needs of the KOM Theatre,’ Milonoff says. A number of other theatres interested in featuring new texts in their repertoires have been in contact.

‘When an idea starts up, anyone at all will be able to send their texts to the hatchery to be evaluated. Theatre directors, dramaturges and students from the dramaturgy department of the Theatre Academy will take place. Each writer will receive feedback on his work. For the most promising ideas, the writer will be paired with a dramaturge who will act as a support until the text is ready to be presented at a reading. The writer will be present at a rehearsed reading and its rehearsal, where he will also observe the director’s and actors’ perspectives on his text. We are also planning a reading festival, which will increase the public’s interest in new drama.’

In the final phase, plays will be selected to be developed into theatre performances by the professional theatres participating in the hatchery.

Pekka Milonoff also wants to network the hatchery internationally. New writing theatres which work in a similar way would be good partners for collaboration.

International contacts are highly necessary. The best Finnish plays would also surely be interesting on international stages. All that is missing is collaboration between theatres. And that is the aim of the text-hatchery.