Finlandia to present musical comedy set in 1930s Finland Oct. 2-5

HANCOCK – Four performances of the play, Herra Puntila and His Man Matti, will be presented Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 2-5, at the Finlandia University Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock.

Pictured here is a scene from Herra Puntila and His Man Matti, a musical comedy written in 1941 by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki. Director Melvin Kangas, Finlandia University music and drama instructor, composed music for the play, which runs Oct. 2-5 at Finlandia's Finnish American Heritage Center. (Photo courtesy Finlandia University.)

Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2-4. The Sunday, Oct. 5, performance begins at 2:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the door prior to each performance. Tickets are $5.00 per person; Finlandia student are admitted free with their university ID. The play is performed in English.

Herra Puntila and His Man Matti (Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) was written in 1941 by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki.

Directed by Finlandia music and drama instructor Melvin Kangas, the musical comedy tells the story of landowner Puntila and his "Jekyll and Hyde" relationships with his daughter, his servant Matti and the workers on his farm. The play was adapted from a Finnish folk tale and is set in Finland in the 1930s.

The play is one of Brecht’s modern social criticism plays. Its message suggests that genuine equality, not the whims of individual philanthropy, bridges the gap between rich and poor.

However, play director Melvin Kangas said the message is not why he chose to produce the play.

"I like to select plays where I can have a creative hand, especially with the music," Kangas explained. "This play gave me that opportunity."

Each of the play’s ten scenes is introduced by a song with music composed by Kangas.

"Brecht wrote the words for the songs, but not the music," Kangas said. "So each production of the play is different."

And to enhance the Finnish ambiance of the play, Kangas has added performances of traditional Finnish dances between each scene. Dancers include Bob and Hester Butler and Phyllis Fredendall and Hannu Leppanen.

The play’s cast and crew numbers more than 25 and includes community members and Finlandia students, staff and faculty.

When Puntila (played by Oren Tikkanen) is sober, he is a mean-spirited, self-centered capitalist who fires workers with communist sympathies, puts profit before people and wants to marry his daughter, Eva (Kendra Benson), to a lame-brained diplomat (Jordan Siegler).

When he is drunk, Puntila is friendly and humane, hiring anyone who needs a job and determined to marry Eva to his chauffeur, Matti (Pasi Lautila), whom he treats as an equal. Oscillating between these two poles, he plays havoc with his workers, his daughter’s marriage and the loyalty of his sardonic chauffeur and valet, Matti.

German playwright, poet, and Marxist Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) wrote his first plays in the 1920s. With the composer Kurt Weill he wrote the satirical musical The Threepenny Opera, which was produced as a film in 1931. With the rise of the Nazis in Germany he went into exile, first in Scandinavia (1933-1941), then in the U.S., where he wrote the play Mother Courage and Her Children (1941) and several other popular plays. Harassed in the U.S. for his politics, in 1949 he returned to East Germany, where he established the Berliner Ensemble theatre troupe and staged his own plays.

For additional information, please contact Melvin Kangas at 906-487-7250.