Page 19 - C.A.L.L. #37 - Winter 2013/2014

Actors, academics celebrate

Finnish commune on Vancouver

Island

By Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press
September 15, 2013

Mika Kaartinen is standing in his backyard in Masala, Finland, looking up at the night sky
and musing out loud during an interview about the journey that will carry him thousands
of kilometres to Canada to perform for the ancestors of the dreamers from his
homeland who arrived on tiny Malcolm Island more than a century ago in search of their
own paradise.

"It is really weird," says Kaartinen, 42, about the trip he and his 26-member theatre
troupe are taking to the tiny community of Sointula — population 600 and located just
off the northeast side of Vancouver Island — to perform their play "Sointula" on Sept.
21. "We had a play about the story and the history of the ancestors of the people still
living there," he said. "It's really a strange feeling to travel there to meet all the people
and see the place. We had to take this chance because you don't get these kinds of
chances normally. It's a once-in-a-lifetime when you do something this crazy."

Kaartinen said his troupe has been performing Sointula, in Finland for the past two
summers. The play tells the ultimately tragic story about the charismatic, free-love-
espousing, political rebel Matti Kurikka, who led the Kalevan Kansa commune in Sointula,
which translates into place of harmony in Finnish. Kaartinen said most Finns are aware
that back in 1901, there was a commune of anti-capitalist Finns in Canada. But what many
didn't realize was that the place still exists and some of the people still living there are
connected to the original commune, although most of the population lives non-commune
lives. Kaartinen said when his theatre troupe received a letter from Sointula residents
about 18 months ago inviting them to come to perform their play, the first response was
shock, followed by enthusiasm.

He said the journey will come full circle on Sept. 21 in Sointula when his troupe performs
"Sointula" for the last time in the community where it all began. "Everything started in
Sointula, and we have been living this life with Sointula for the last two or three years
now, and this is the last time we will do the play, at the Finnish Organization Hall in
Sointula — the right place to finish it all," said Kaartinen.

He said the troupe, who raised $50,000, to pay for their trip, had opportunities to stage
the play in Nanaimo and Vancouver, but time constraints and their desire to bring the
play home means only one performance in the 150-seat Sointula community hall.

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