Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1971 - 15

touching. It had the slickness of
Broadway. The same was true of
Zorbas (so spelled in Finnish), which
was in the repetoire that same week.
Designer Leo Lehto made shrewd,
original use of the large stage's huge
revolve, keeping the scenes moving
sWiftly and maintaining a visual continuity during changes.
As though Zorba and Fiddlerwere
not enough, I Do, I Do and You're a
Good Man, Charley Brown were also
playing. It is ironic that these four
popular ew York musicals can be
seen in repertory in one week in Finland, but not in New York.
Most of the city theatres in Finland, of which Helsinki's City Theatre is the most prominent example,
are an outgrowth of two separate
theatre groups: the workers' theatre
and the bourgeoisie theatre. Initially,
the purpose of the workers' groups
was to educate through dramatic presentation. Gradually it became obvious that workers, like everyone else,
wanted to hav~ fun at the theatre,
and there was a shift toward operetta.

Therefore, although their politics
and modes of earning a living differed,
the audiences for the two theatre
groups really came to like much the
same sort of thing. And since it is
difficult to support two companies in
small towns, even with state and city
subsidies, in most cases the two have
been merged into one company. And
while the old-fashioned operetta used
to be the favorite, since World War
II, and especially in the 1960's, the
American musical comedy has won a
wide public.
As head of the City Theatre, Dr.
Timo Tiusanen is well aware of the
demands and expectations of his audiences:

Our roots are in the Helsinki Workers'
Theatre, 189~1907. Other mergers followed
until it became the Helsinki People's
Theatre during the 1964-65 season. But
there was no real difference in the pm·
grams of these theatres and the little
boulevard playhouses. The workers loved
Viennese operettas, playing and seeing
counts, dukes, and princesses. So our
mandate has always been clear. We are

A rehearsal on the large stage. The revolve is clearly visible.

specialists in musicals, which is why the
main stage was designed on such a large
scale. There is an operetta theatre in
Helsinki, but we concentrate on the modem musical--and there certainly is a
market for it.

There is only one fly in Tiusanen' s
ointment: although the City Theatre
is subsidized to about 50 percent of
its total costs, the average Finnish
subsidy is about 66 percent. Since
there is a lot of competition in Helsinki, he feels his house should get
the 66 percent and the houses in
towns with no competition the 50
percent.
However, the city theatre and
Helsinki's theatre in general are
thriving.
In America, one often hears that
color television or the films are keeping audiences away from the theatre,
but Helsinki has both color television
and films in abundance while the
theatre thrives.
Perhaps we \vill have to find a
different excuse.

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