The problem with Finnish (or: Why we should all just be engineers)

We went to the theater last night with R to see Teatteri Takomo perform Ihmeellinen armo. It was about the rise and fall of an Evangelical-Lutheran preacher. I won't actually go into the plot too much, but sufficient to say it made me think of There Will Be Blood more than a few times. And they also played the National Coalition card; nothing's easier than to poke fun at the upper classes. Anyway, I have to admit that I'm not a very big fan of Finnish television or theater. Or very many art forms in general. My issues are multifold: on one hand I always feel that Finnish as a language, while average for literature, is entirely appalling and unsuitable for any sort of verbal artform. On the other hand I feel that an average Finnish actor has the stage charisma of a shoe. The starting points are thus not too good for the Finnish "intellectual" artforms.

Maybe it has something to do with the overall Finnish attitude and temperament. We've traditionally been very sparsely populated as a country and very much oriented towards survival in a climate where the winters are dark and cold and agriculture stands firmly on its own, as long as the European Union is supporting it. I talked to a Polish acquaintance a few years back and he explained that they see Finns as good intending folks, who may be slightly naive and like to cut trees, swim across rivers (as opposed to using bridges) and then drink vodka to get warm again. And once a Finn starts to do something, s/he will typically do the best s/he can. So it's not a surprise that once a Finn decides to act, it will be something that you will remember: "Now I am acting and I am going to let everyone know that I truely am acting." Not too good, especially if acting is supposed to be the act of pretending or portraying someone who you are not. If acting is deception, then Finns will be unbelievably appalling in lying.

And then about the language: this is slightly difficult to elaborate on, since it's just something that personally annoys me very greatly. I don't consider Finnish an especially beautiful language. It lacks the finesse that some other languages have and the language is difficult to master. I've never read Douglas Adams in Finnish, but I somehow feel that if I had, I would've had to contemplate hurting myself to ease the pain. There are some famous Finns who have been able to make beautiful and great things with Finnish (Mika Waltari comes to mind, for obvious reasons). It's just a shame that had they had access to better tools in the form of other languages, they could've potentially achieved very much more and on a more global scale.

Then there is the general problem that amateur theaters have to struggle with: building credibility and getting noticed. This isn't necessarily applicable only to Finns, but based on personal experience, it just seems that Finnish theater, especially on the lower levels, is very much based on silly gimmicks and plots and dialogue that has been written for the sole reason of trying too much to be controversial, thought-provoking, and intellectual. Or if it doesn't aspire to the former of the three, then it's because it wants to be so artsy that it will be credible in the right circles. This combined with the "I'm acting now!" trait, as described above, can result in very... err... well, something.

Now, I know I might be fairly cruel. And I have to admit that Ihmeellinen armo was surprisingly decent for Finnish theater. And I know that theaters have trouble to compete with other entertainment forms in the contemporary world and for the niche that is still left it's a cutthroat competition to the end. But that does not change the fact that more often than not I just cannot stand Finnish theater. As an experience, I much more prefer the opera.

And one last thing: I seriously hate it when the actors start interacting with the audience. The audience is often very courteous and respects the presence of the fourth wall, but when the actors break the wall, I personally have a very big urge to also abuse the broken wall and throw something at them in return...