New Plays from Finland

Photo albums full of special days 
as if life was nothing but a celebration

A Special Day is a nostalgic deep-dive into the past of an average working class in post-war Finland in the 1960’s-70’s. Specifically, it is a documentary theatre play built around interviews given by Taisto Reimaluoto, the topic of which mostly center around his alcoholic father. In this play we are invited to look back with warmth and sentimentality to the events and moments captured in an old family photo album. 

The play takes place in Finland during a time in which there was a strong collective sense of shared hope for a brighter future for both the country and its citizens. However, even with this overarching feeling of positivity, this was also a world in which many physical laborers had worked themselves to the bone many times over, including the father in this family. But these are not the truths that are photographed. Instead we see the roses, the cakes, and the celebrations. Each scene begins with a different memory which we dive into in order to peek behind the curtain of what it means to be part of a family.

The play premiered at the end of 2017 in Lahti City Theatre.  

Please note that the following quotes and passages with the *-symbols have been translated by Pia Malinen for TINFO's New Plays from Finland site. The numbers refer to the page numbers from the original text. 

 

5-6: 

* 

MOTHER 

Vilho has kept struggling to remember things.  

 

FATHER 

I’m curious… 

How did it all go?  

What ended up happening to us?  

Did I manage to find work?  

Did our efforts eventually  

have any impact at all?  

 

 

TOPI 

Yeah - this is - different, at least. 

 

FATHER 

Did you hear that, Helmi! 

At least something good! 

 

MOTHER: 

Huh? What did he say?  

Give me the phone! 

 

FATHER 

Alright, I need to go take a bath. 

Edvard! Come here! 

 

TOPI 

Oh, a bath... Oh my! 

 

FATHER 

Bye then, son. 

 

MOTHER 

Well, will you manage? Is everything alright?  

 

TOPI 

I suddenly just started to miss you.  

 

MOTHER 

Don’t be sad. 

We’ll see you soon. 

Damn hares are hopping… 

 

I need to go out to the garden now. 

 

Bye then. 

 

TOPI 

My family’s story 

 

moments in the past arise 

 

full of meaning 

 

and faith in the future 

 

which suddenly fills my entire body. * 

 

________________________________ 

 

 

13: 

* 

FATHER  

Well. Well alright then. Helmi said that there should be a speech now. So I’ll do it. We probably wouldn’t have… ever understood the joy we had coming when we saw each other over there last summer… That I, a blaster in charge, a logger, would bare myself in front of anyone as I am doing right now in front of Helmi. That through her I would get some sort of clarity about how we’re building something bigger than us into this world, and that we make sure that there’s a place and a good life for everyone, which is why I am also off to seek my own happiness with Helmi. And so I say… that a family will be the result of this and that’s pretty striking and wonderful and it’s something I find difficult to comprehend that it’s happening to me. * 

_____________________________________ 

 

26-27: 

* 

CHOIR 

Topi! 

 

TOPI 

What! 

 

CHOIR 

What is your mission in this life! 

 

TOPI 

What! 

 

CHOIR 

A person thinks they can choose a mission when in reality it attacks them and almost strangles them to death until it has been completed. 

 

CHOIR 

Everyone has an assigned mission. Even the smallest beetle. Do you understand? 

 

TOPI 

No! 

I understand absolutely nothing! 

 

CHOIR 

But alas, you’re a dreamer! You’re like your father! Your father didn’t leave with us! 

 

TOPI 

Well no he certainly didn’t! 

 

CHOIR