The Kuopio City Theatre’s topical interpretation of the text, which reflects nationalist thinking, impressed the author Rosa Liksom. Cabin No. 6 was published 12 years ago.
The author is used to seeing his own texts interpreted freshly, but he has only now been able to visit the Kuopio auditorium.
– Surprisingly topical, says the author on his way out of the theatre.
In the book, he describes Russian nationalism, which has emerged under the Tsars, during the Soviet era and is emerging today.
– This included things that resonate to the present day. Nationalist thinking, which is the main theme of the book, came out well here.
Liksom has made the trip described in the text once in the Soviet Union. The novel received the Finlandia Literature Prize in 2011 and has been made into both a successful film and now a play.
– All of these are completely different. This play is definitely the heaviest. This was even stronger than the book!
Liksom analyzes that art forms are different, and that’s fine. It is not a problem for the author that the interpretation of the story has lived and changed – and moved from the Trans-Siberian railway to Murmansk.
Murmansk changed lives
In the 1970s, during the golden age of vodka tourism, Murmansk was a youthful city surrounded by fells, where half a million people lived. Rosa Liksom ate Uzbek and Georgian food for the first time and was a little impressed by everything.
– One can be like this and live like this, he thought during his visit to the arctic city.
The first trip to Murmansk, with a population of half a million, made Liksom move from Tornionlaakso to Rovaniemi and start studying Russia.
That was the beginning of a long journey, which is depicted in the clip *Cabin no. 6*.
Your own journey and a different self-image
He considers the main character to be different in the novel, in the film and on the stage.
– In the novel, he’s a pretty strong guy, and he’s not weak.
In Kuopio, Liksom had a theater experience that felt more distant from his own memories. The stage version is more violent than the original.
– I didn’t recognize myself and it felt awfully good. For me, that journey was not as difficult as this play. Violence was needed for this interpretation.
He was never afraid on his way through the Soviet Union. And Liksom is not a fearful type anyway. However, he corrects when he tries to twist it into courage.
– It’s a sense of adventure to throw yourself into a situation and culture. It requires elasticity. In that way I have traveled both in the West and in the East. I always wanted to know both.