Lintu vai kala

Original name	Lintu vai kala
Kirjoittajat	Laura Ruohonen
Original language	Finnish
Premiere year	1991
Theater	Suomen Kansallisteatteri / Finnish National Theatre
Keywords	Drama

Performances abroad

A workshop by university of Adelaide, Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia 1994

Synopsis

The main character of Fish or Fowl is Riikka, a young biologist, passionate and uncompromising in her work as well as in her emotional attachments. The man she has loved and still loves, Jaypee, is prone to compromise and to take the path of least resistance. He is unable to choose between two women, his newly-wed wife Iira and Riikka, but he does look out for Number One.
The research station in the Lapland wilderness, Riikka's life-work, is taken out of her hands. The idealists lose, Riikka as well as her great-uncle, the old violin maker Markus. Those always willing to compromise find each other: Iira joins up with Lepa, a businessman fallen on hard times and now working as the manager of a nearby resort.
The theme of Fish or Fowl is the way we squander our own and others' lives: the way we let our own lives pass, prevent others from living, and, almost as a by-product, destroy the conditions for the survival of other species on earth. The deterioration and pollution of the basic elements of nature - sun, sea, snow, water - which human beings have regarded as symbols of the good and the eternal, also changes human beings and the way they see themselves in their relatioships to the world and to each other.
Irony and melodrama bloom among the marshflowers of the play's setting. In this world, absurdist laughter is the only defence left to the helpless.

Translations

Language	English
Translation name	Fish or Fowl
Translators	Anselm Hollo
Julkaisija	University Press 1991, ISBN 951-96248-2-1
Copies available	Nordic Drama Corner, www.dramacorner.fi, office(at)dramacorner.fi
Drama agency	Nordic Drama Corner, www.dramacorner.fi, office(at)dramacorner.fi

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