When the Doves
Disappeared
The Play
When the Doves
Disappeared
THIS IS
HOW SOVIET
PROPAGANDA
WAS BORN
T
he play When the Doves Disappeared is based on Sofi Oksanen’s
novel by the same name, which belongs to her Quartet series about
Estonia’s recent past and the division of Europe in two parts. The
previous novels in the series are Stalin’s Cows and Purge.
The play differs from the novel both in structure and emphasis: the
novel is written anachronically and portrays how historical truth is
constructed with words. The play progresses chronologically and focuses
on the image. The central figure, Edgar Parts, has been changed from
the author in the novel into a photographer and director working for the
KGB and the German security police.
In Edgar’s private life, conflict arises from his unhappy marriage, his
wife Juudit’s affair with a German, and his resistance fighter cousin
Roland, fighting for Estonian independence.
”
Juudit is perhaps
Oksanen’s most
complex character to
date, one whom it is
difficult to like but
easy to understand.”
— sydsvenskan, amanda
svensson (sweden, 2012)
”
In Edgar Parts
Oksanen has created
an unsparingly
charming, totally
unprincipled and
deeply frightening
”The power of the two totalitarian systems, the Soviet Union and national
socialist Germany, was based not only on terror but also on propaganda
in which the image and the word were the most essential weapons. This
meant harnessing an artist-armada for propaganda duties,” Oksanen
says. “Because of today’s rapid information distribution we still have
to be able to understand how news, truth and interpretations are
constructed. The methods are the same as in Edgar Parts’s day. Through
Edward Snowden’s disclosures we know that today, too, incriminating
information useful for extortion is being gathered about people exactly
the same way as in Parts’s world.” We saw all these tools used also in
Ukraine, when Russia invaded the country.
The play premièred on the main stage of the Finnish National Theatre
on November 27, 2013. It was directed by Raila Leppäkoski. The set was
by Karmo Mende, and the music playing throughout the performance
was Maija Kaunismaa’s. The music from the performance was recorded
and is available in whole or in part for theatre use through a separate
contract. Matleena Kuusniemi (Juudit), Janne Hyytiäinen (Roland) and
Timo Tuominen (Edgar) shone in the main roles.
Before the opening night, the play was presented in a reading performance
at Sweden’s Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in Stockholm on
November 23, 2013. It was directed by Nils Poletti and five actors took
part. Edgar was played by impressively stonefaced Björn Granath.
The play will be performed at the Kuopio City Theatre in 2016 in an interpretation by legendary Estonian director Priit Pedajas.
character.”
— john sjögren, uppsala
ny tidning (sweden, 2013)
”
At hand is great
drama that draws
on the power of the
word and at the same
time an exciting
multi-layered story
about Estonia in
the 1940s and 1960s.”
PERSONS
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT DOVES:
About the Play:
”
”
A significant event.” – eesti päevaleht, estonia
The whole play is brilliantly constructed to depict the twofacedness of not just one man but of Estonian society of that
time: the same actors are on stage the whole time, as is the
same set. Only the flag flying over the backwoods changes.”
– savon sanomat (NOVEMBER 28)
”
”–
”
”
With the play’s script, Oksanen did it again.”
–aamulehti (NOVEMBER 29)
Oksanen’s forte is depicting tragic intersection points that
force people into cruel decisions humanized by circumstances.”
turun sanomat
A complete and haunting whole.”
”Continually jolting the audience, the story progresses to its
unforgiving close” – ilta-sanomat
No one can be unaffected by this powerful story and its dark
historical framework. The production’s extensive interweaving
of multiple arts and media is another of its merits. Cruelties are
exposed against a background of moving lyrical music, countless
charcoal drawings propel the war – and the visual arts – forward
in the audience’s minds, and when the weeds of evil run
rampant, love unfolds its own flower, big and pure and fragrant.
At the bottom of the pocket of inconsolable desolation, hope for
a new tomorrow hides, waiting.” – länsi-uusimaa (DECEMBER 3)
”
When the Doves Disappeared’, a play adapted from Sofi
Oksanen’s own novel, serves as a healthy reminder of the hell
and trampling the Estonian people endured. It also tells what
kinds of scoundrels and heroes rose out of the long period of
martial law that lasted until 1991. The play does not so much tell
of war and its consequences on the political and state level as
from the individual’s point of view. Seen from this perspective,
the painful events hurt even more.” – demari (DECEMBER 2)
”
Today the greatest marvel of theatre occurred. An invisible
bridge grew from the performance to the audience. The message
hit home. I saw again how the Estonians were deported or shot
for reasons that have made me proud: the blue and white
colours, and the national anthem of freedom.”
– kulttuurilehti akku (NOVEMBER 30)
”
Set in the time of the national socialist Germany occupation
and Soviet Estonia, ‘When the Doves Disappeared’ is an
impressive play. Despite the fact it lasts for almost three hours,
the play has its own mysteri-ous power and atmosphere.”
”
”
It feels as if the interwoven stories, characters and themes
have become tighter and clearer and to some extent even
brighter once moved to the stage. At core is humankind’s desire
to get recognition, to love, and, in the end, to pull through, no
matter what it takes.” – turun sanomat (NOVEMBER 29)
About the Novel:
Edgar’s wife
LIUTENANT
MARTA BARTELS
ROLAND SIMSON,
SCENE II
CAPTAIN PORKOV
LIEUTENANT
DOCTOR
’When the Doves Disappeared’ portrays with merciless logic
and perception what happens when a society has lost its morals.
// Few if any Nordic authors are capable of constructing a tale
with the pure and stunning artistry of Sofi Oksanen.” – arbetar-
The play takes place in
Estonia under changing
occupations, from the
1930s to 1966.
With her dense, rich prose, magnificent Sofi Oksanen earns a
place somewhere between Quentin Tarantino and Leo Tolstoi.”
Rosalie’s fiancé
and Edgar’s cousin
ROSALIE ARM,
Roland’s fiancée
HELLMUTH HERTZ,
SS-Hauptsturmführer
MENTZEL,
SS-Untersturmführer
HANS AUMEIER,
SS-Hauptsturmführer
EDGAR PARTS
JUUDIT PARTS
ROLAND SIMSON
MARTA BARTELS,
Roland’s wife,
Evelin’s foster mother
REIN,
Evelin’s fiancé
TRANSLATIONS OF
THE PLAY CURRENTLY
AVAILABLE:
•Estonian
•English
•Swedish
Sofi Oksanen has won the most awards
of any Finnish writer alive, in her home
country and internationally. She has
written four novels, of which two have
become international best sellers, as well
as two full-length plays and a collection
of song lyrics, Too Short a Skirt (2011).
Oksanen was born in Jyväskylä, lives in
Helsinki, and has studied dramaturgy
at Helsinki’s Theatre Academy and
literature at the University of Helsinki.
Finlandia Prize (2008)
Kalevi Jäntti Prize (2008)
Mika Waltari Award (2008)
Runeberg Prize (2009)
Nordic Council Literature Prize (2010)
Prix Femina Étranger (2010)
The Europe Book Prize (2010)
The FNAC Prize (Le Prix du Roman Fnac) (2010)
Pro Finlandia, the Order of the Lion of Finland (2012)
Swedish Academy Nordic Prize (2013)
Budapest Grand Prize (2014)
Neither the novel nor the play is simply political history. This is
a movingly precise picture of human relationships and a love that
remains unfulfilled.” – apu (NOVEMBER 28)
Roland’s daughter
EDGAR PARTS
JUUDIT PARTS,
SOFI OKSANEN
MAJOR AWARDS:
EVELIN,
Juudit’s friend
Books in 44 language territories
– lukeminen.fi (NOVEMBER 28)
GERDA,
SCENE I
Performances in
12 language regions
”
bladet, sweden
”–
”
”
”
klassekampen, norway
Explosive text, with a black heart.” – le monde, france
A new gem from Oksanen.” – el periòdico, spain
Masterful dialogue combines with the work’s violent intensity
and Oksanen’s ability to describe the internal turmoil of characters who are hurled about by the winds of history. These qualities
make her novels unforgettable.” – marianne, france
WORKS:
Novels:
Stalin’s Cows (2003)
Baby Jane (2005)
Purge (2008)
When the Doves Disappeared (2012)
Plays:
Purge, Première on the Willensauna Stage,
7 February 2007
Tales from the Kitchen, Première in the
Omapohja Studio, 1 September 2011
When the Doves Disappeared, Première at the
Finnish National Theatre, 27 November 2013
”
When the Doves Disappeared” appeared first as a novel, but
the idea of a stage production was already there when the story’s
basics were taking shape in my mind. The tale takes place in a
world with a façade built from happy energetic images of Soviet
realism and national socialist Germany. Behind the scenes,
immeasurable camp networks spread out across Siberia
and all the territory of the Third Reich.
The story belongs on stage because it tells about lies presented
as truth, about the totalitarian states’ public truths, which
were theatre in themselves.
In Finland the theatre audience can choose whether or not to clap
and decide for themselves how long to applaud, and for whom, or
whether not to applaud, without consequences. “When the Doves
Disappeared” tells about a world where things were different and
where something as self-evident to us as a spectator’s freedom
to choose was just a distant dream.”
- SOFI OKSANEN
Photos: Toni Härkönen
Requests for theatre rights in Finland and Estonia:
Otava Publishing Company Ltd
Milla Palovaara
Uudenmaankatu 10
00120 Helsinki
[email protected]
+358 40 596 7973
sofioksanen.fi • sofioksanen.com • kyyhkyset.fi