In the novelty play Ei Enenut, the despised \”German brides\” return on foot from northern Norway to their home regions in Finland.
In 2020, the successful novel was nominated for the Finlandia Award. Kinnunen wondered how walking and thinking could be turned into a play for the theater.
Now she is happy when \”women who have been silenced after returning home finally get a voice to be heard\”.
The play *He didn’t say he regrets*, directed by Susanna Airaksie, premieres at the Helsinki City Theatre.
Women’s wilderness hike from Norway home
The Second World War (1939–1945) is at an end.
The German troops have left Lapland burned to ashes and mined. They withdraw from Northern Norway, board a ship and return to their homeland.
The services of women who worked for the German army are no longer needed. Some go to the Germans, some end up in prison camps.
The five northern Finnish women in the play decide to return to their home region in Finland.
With their hair plucked, a tired and silent crowd walks hundreds of kilometers on a footpath from Narvik in northern Norway in the spring of 1945.
Women washed the bodies and baked bread
The play is not a soldier’s story.
Director Susanna Airaksinen states that *Didn’t say she regrets* is about Veera, Siiri, Irene, Katri and Aili, but not Roka, Hietasen, Lehto, Lammioi or Rahikainen.
– The play brings out aspects of history other than victorious battles and great successes.
– In addition to the history of violence, it also tells about women who sustain life. Of those who baked bread, made coffee, washed bodies and cared for the sick, says Airaksinen.
The play based on Tommi Kinnusen’s novel is based on real events.
Women were molested and barked at
– Women were humiliated and their hair was shaved off. What evil had they done? After all, the women were working for the Germans, he says.
Women returning to Finland were molested. They were taunted as German brides with light shoes, traitors and little girls fascinated by uniforms.
– The gentlemen left on their ships towards Germany and then their own treated these women as outcasts, Herala, who plays the main character Irene, gasps.
The women’s mouths closed in shame
One theme of the play is shame.
Shame stopped the women’s mouths and the experiences were kept silent.
– The task of the play is to tell and remind that this has really happened to people. Not everyone even knows that such fates have happened, Aino Seppo reminds.
There is enough to dwell on in the past
In the opinion of the director Susanna Airaknisen, there is still much to be done in Finnish history and the processing of our past is in progress.
– It is extremely important that we highlight narratives, stories and details from the past. Then our perception of the world and also of the present will change.
He states that the play is not only the five women’s difficult journey home.
– I was also struck by the fact that hiking through the wilderness is a metaphor for going through a crisis. Life’s choices have come to an end, and it is no longer possible to continue as before, says Airaksinen.
The premiere of the play \”Didn’t say you regret it\” is at the Helsinki City Theater on Thursday, February 9.
Later this year, it will be presented as a collaboration between seven theaters.
Participating in the production are Kouvola Theater, Turku City Theater, Lahti City Theater, Tampere Theater, Seinäjoki City Theater, Hämeenlinna City Theater and the Finnish-Berlin Vapaa Teatteri.
The play is being rehearsed in Berlin, where it will premiere on July 1.