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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2021
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A historic glimpse at the ‘Love & Politics’ cast.
From the attic of Suomi Hall
Local residents fi nd
long-lost Finnish play
By RAY GARCIA
For The Astorian
I
t’s not every day that the Astor Street
Opry Company gets to perform a
long-lost historical play.
But thanks to a recent fi nding of a
variety of Finnish plays, local resi-
dents can watch a modern rendition of
a 115-year-old play. The Astoria Scan-
dinavian Midsummer Festival and the
opry company have partnered to off er
a virtual showing of “Love & Politics,”
written by Finnish playwright A.T.
The one-act play was published in
1906 in Hämeenlinna, Finland. The
show centers on widower Mr. Ketonen
as he pushes his daughter, Hilda, to
marry his best friend, Mr. Petola.
However, Hilda is in love with Einar
Salmela, a local Socialist leader whom
her father despises because of his polit-
ical ideology.
Despite the title and confl ict of the
play, the show is not political in nature,
said Michael Desmond, operations
manager for the opry company.
“(Salmela) could be a jazz singer.
He could be a clown. He could be a
baker. He could be anything that the
father didn’t really care for,” Des-
mond said. “That’s just the foil for the
father to not like the daughter’s choice
of suitor … In fact, the whole point of
the play is that love and politics don’t
mix, so just because you don’t like what
party somebody belongs to, it doesn’t
mean you shouldn’t let him marry your
daughter.”
A recording of the play is available
for viewing on the opry company’s
YouTube channel until Wednesday.
Discovering the script
The Astoria Finnish Socialist Club
building was completed in 1910. The
club building stood four stories tall with
a theater run by a professional stage
director from Helsinki.
When the club burned down in
1923, the actors from the theater began
performing at the stage owned by the
Finnish Brotherhood. After all those
years, the scripts produced on the Finn-
ish Brotherhood’s stage were stored in
the attic of Suomi Hall, which is where
“Love & Politics” was found.
Janet Bowler, the entertainment
coordinator for the Astoria Scandi-
Astor Street Opry Company
A snapshot of the Astoria Finnish Socialist Club’s theater stage.
‘WE KNOW WE’RE AT A TURNING POINT
BETWEEN GENERATIONS. IT WAS IMPORTANT
TO US TO MAINTAIN THIS HERITAGE NOW, SO
WE CAN PASS IT ON TO THE NEXT GENERATION.’
Janet Bowler | entertainment coordinator for the Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival
navian Midsummer Festival, said for
years she heard there were scripts kept
in the attic of Suomi Hall. After speak-
ing with Karen Van Cleave of the Finn-
ish Brotherhood, Bowler soon found
herself holding a shopping bag fi lled
with about 19 scripts.
“I’m Norwegian, I don’t speak Finn-
ish,” Bowler said. “So I asked Sirpa
Duoos to browse through them and see
if she thought any were appropriate for
reader’s theater … We usually have a
reader’s theater performance as part of
the (Scandinavian festival).”
Before the coronavirus pandemic,
Duoos acted as chair of the festival’s
Parade of Native Wear. The festival
paid Duoos to translate the play from
Finnish, then paid the opry company to
produce the piece, using a grant from
the Clatsop County Cultural Coalition
and the Oregon Cultural Trust. Director
Chris Lynn Taylor modifi ed the script
for reader’s theater.
Honoring Nordic Heritage
Over one-third of Astoria’s popula-
tion identifi ed as Scandinavian in the
early 20th century, according to the fes-
tival. The Nordic community helped set
the tone for the town during its early
beginnings, Bowler said.
“We produce the festival to maintain
our heritage,” she said.
As part of the festival, the reader’s
theater event usually aims to both enter-
tain and inform, Bowler said. In the
case of “Love & Politics,” its discovery
and production stands as a testament to
the Nordic communities that settled in
Astoria.
In tandem to her role as entertain-
ment coordinator, Bowler is also vice
chair of the Astoria Nordic Heritage
Park Committee, which is planning to
begin park construction this fall. The
park will not only commemorate the
community’s Nordic heritage, Bowler
said, but will also honor the immigrant
tradition to recognize those who’ve
moved to Astoria for a better future.
“We know we’re at a turning point
between generations,” Bowler said. “It
was important to us to maintain this
heritage now, so we can pass it on to the
next generation.”
Ray Garcia is a contributor to The
Astorian and Coast Weekend.
Astor Street Opry Company
The cast for ‘Love & Politics.’