A peek into Angels in America's rehearsals at the Finnish National Theater

I got to see Tony Kusher’s Angels in America’s rehearsals at Kansallisteatteri, Finnish National Theater. The director/dramaturg Linda Wallgren and Kansallisteatteri have got the rights to turn this six hour play that usually is performed in two separate parts into four hours and single performance.

The stage combines ancient elements like marble and a piece of statue bulging from the wall with modern elements like light effects in rainbow hues. Surprisingly many actors wear caps, a good way to protect your energy in rehearsals, or so a former guru-like theater teacher once told me.

Before starting to go through the scenes, actors check where they can move themselves and their props. It’s fascinating how many details have to be looked at before everything runs smoothly on stage. It’s time to rehearse a rave scene and the serene stage transforms into a club. Overall the aesthetic of the stage blurs time and space together and is surprisingly adaptable. The show is going to be dynamic and precise to say the least.

Time is not wasted but everyone stays alert, not forgetting to crack a joke at times. When the director or choreographer Suvi Kemppainen works one on one with someone, the rest of the team discusses how to adjust a movement or position a prop. 

Overall the communication between the actors and the director and the whole team to say the least is focused and flowing. Linda co-reacts to the actors in the audience and is bodily very present. If the actors are unsure of something, they dare to question and wonder aloud. Especially in a more abstract scene where Linda offers bodily approaches, the actors ask why. Other actors who grasp the ideas more quickly share their thoughts and the scene is tried out. 

After the rehearsal period I got to sit with the actors and director and ask some questions:

Actors, how do you keep your energies in balance during the rehearsals? Is it the caps that protect you?
—  I think caps are just trending, they’re not the solution, Markku Haussila chuckles.
— In general we balance our energies together. An excess hype is starting to wear off. If we’re not needed on stage, we take off and unwind a little. It helps us to focus, Aksa Korttila explains and Markku nods his head.
 

Linda, why is the performance important in this time?

—  It communicates with so many themes that are relevant in this time too. The performance reflects how all along we get more hopeless news and how polarisation and post-pandemic time is in our hands and we must choose which path to take. I feel this piece is humane, hopeful and fair, which is very recognizable, moving and clear. It doesn’t give clear answers but brings comfort.

I leave the building and let the team continue their rehearsals. Perhaps something that stuck into my head were the themes of supernatural and human, how we all seek something extraordinary, even a small glimpse of a promise that would in the end safe us from our miseries. The themes written in the play and the polycrisis time we live in speak loudly, even in those short moments I got to experience in the rehearsals. I promise to get back at them and am excited to see the final form of the show, more insightful questions waiting for them in my notebook. 

Article: Rosanna Ilo Liuski
Headline photo: Mitro Härkönen

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