The Violence of War and Theatre Redefined
By Alyson Fortner
From the very first moment of Kristian Smeds' production of Tuntematon
sotilas (The Unknown Soldier), the movement, images, and incorporation
of media engrossed the audience with its bold choices and intense social
and political commentaries. The pacifist novel by Väino Linna (1954)
and film by Edvin Laine (1955) of the same name use the story of Finland's
war against the Soviet Union to depict the Finnish underdogs as heroes: the
novel, film, and the many stagings of The Unknown Soldier have served
as a very important symbol of Finnish national identity. Smeds has commented
on the idea of a Finnish identity based on war stories by exploiting and
magnifying the terror war can provide within his version of the Finnish classic.
Smeds' work is a revolutionary success of experimentation and though it has
been controversial within the Finnish government and society, this internally
renowned production is changing the face of contemporary theatre.
One of the many striking images of the play was at the very beginning when
two soldiers periodically switched being in command of each other by ordering
the other to do push-ups and up-downs. This repeated alternation of authority
experimented with the relationship between an officer and a soldier, the
oppressor and the oppressed. The entire production itself tested this
relationship by redefining what inspires Finnish identity by asking the question,
"Does the violence of war really inspire and define so much of our nation's
identity?"
The entire beginning sequence was played out in a shallow pool of water-imagine
harsh bright lights coming from downstage with soldiers dripping wet as they
hurl their bodies into this water to perform their commanded tasks. The dullness
of the color on stage at this point allowed my imagination to infer that
perhaps the immense drops of water coming off their bodies was in fact blood,
which enlivened the image and illuminated the intensity of the action taking
place. Presenting these dramatic images from the very start set the precedent
for an all around moving performance.
The most powerful image sequence in the first act was what I refer to as,
"The Matryoshka Doll Rape." The soldiers find a set of these Russian nesting
dolls and grope them in every way possible. This sequence, like much of the
play, was being simultaneously filmed and projected onto a very large screen
that was displayed on stage. The juxtaposition of the actual soldiers performing
the action along with the larger than life, live-filmed images was overwhelming
at times. This scene symbolizing the conquest of Russian women in war was
also matched with a photograph of mangled, naked, female bodies lying on
an abandoned field. The combined use of movement, symbol and media is something
that floods the audience member with such powerful images, emphasizing the
terrifying violence of war, regardless of who-"us" or "them"-commits it.
The use of media went even further to include the audience in the production
at times by projecting our image onto the large screen. One of the first
times this happened was as one of the important soldiers was about to commit
suicide. This soldier was filming himself with the audience in the background,
so as he lay on the stage, back facing the audience, we saw on the screen
his face amongst all of our faces, as if we were a part of his self-destruction
and said nothing or did nothing to stop it. Smeds deconstructs the fourth
wall, not with a simple aside, but including the audience in the violence
of the production. Looking at yourself on the screen while a violent act
takes place was provocative, since we were involved directly, participating
in it.
Behind this mastery of media there is a deep message saying that the people
of the audience are responsible for the emphasis given to war violence and
how it is accepted, celebrated, and incorporated into the constructs of national
identities. The finale of the show flashed pictures of Finnish government
officials, George Bush, popular Finnish cultural icons—such as the director
of the Finnish National Theatre herself—and audience members, onto the
screen; each picture was then shot at. Smeds chose to portray the shooting
by having the image shatter like glass and then have blood drip down and
stain the image. For me, this summarized the point of the production, that
the identities of society are created by images that can be shattered at
any moment. The audience-the people of the world-can control which images
affect them and which create their identity.
Tuntematon sotilas
Photo credit: Antti Ahonen
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