Anna Liisat: Maailman ja näyttämön muuttuva todellisuus

Abstract

Anna Liisa’s Changing Realities of the World on Stage The article discusses the production history of Minna Canth’s last play, Anna Liisa (1895), and theatrical realism. Of all Canth’s plays Anna Liisa has enjoyed the most theatre productions; between 1895 and 2014 there were more than 70 performances in professional theatres in Finland. I demonstrate the different ways in which Canth’s Anna Liisa has been interpreted over the last 120 years. There seem to be three main traditions, and over the years the interpretative focus has changed from the community to the individual. The three traditions emphasise the religious, the social and the individual and are complementary rather than exclusive of one another. The play’s last scene in particular has been construed in widely differently ways. The premiere took place at the Finnish Theatre in Helsinki in 1895. The first productions interpreted the ending through Anna Liisa’s faith, a tradition that persisted until the early 1970s. Sakari Puurunen’s version at the Finnish National Theatre in 1972 marked a turning point. The production was celebrating the centennial of the Finnish Theatre, the predecessor of the Finnish National Theatre. It was the first production to focus on the social questions in the play, whose story involves a narrow-minded community following very strict norms of behaviour. Although Puurunen’s interpretation did not stress the play’s religious aspects, nevertheless the main character seemed to be the community rather than the individual. Only very recent interpretations, such as Tuija-Maija Niskanen’s television production (1988) and Mikko Roiha’s staging at the Vaasa Municipal Theatre (2003), have emphasised Anna Liisa’s personal experiences and memories, including her womanhood and sexuality. In these later productions Anna Liisa is seen as a woman, not as a young girl. Theatrical conventions have also changed. What is seen on stage is not the realistic milieu in which Anna Liisa and her community are living, but rather Anna Liisa’s inner world, her reality and how she perceives the world she lives in.