Finnish theatre director Kalle Holmberg died on September 12 after a long illness from leukaemia. Among other achievements, Holmberg held distinguished tenures as a director of two of Finland’s most popular performance venues: the Helsinki City Theatre and the National Opera.
For many, Holmberg will be remembered best for directing and starring in the legendary first 1966 production of the Lapualaisoopera (Lapua Opera), a musical play examining the far-right nationalist Lapua Movement that took shape in Finland after 1929.
Written by Arvo Salo and set to music by the promising young composer Kaj Chydenius, the university student theatre group’s controversial performance was a bold statement from the young leftist students against Finland’s radical past, and now enjoys cult status in Finland’s theatre world. Many of the songs from the performance have also gone on to become iconic.
Physicality on the stage
Helsinki City Theatre's Director Asko Sarkola remembers how Holmberg introduced a freedom of movement to the Finnish theatre. Theatre in Finland in the 1960s, he says, was still largely about standing in place and reciting lines.
“His was a very physical theatre. His number one pick as an actor was Esko Salminen, among others, Holmberg's choreography on stage was very clear. It was a living breathing theatre, not literature,” Sarkola says.
Another of his major works was the four-part 1982 Rauta-aika (Iron Age) television series for Yle’s channel 2, where he also served as director. Written by the famous Finnish poet and playwright Paavo Haavikko, the series re-created the national epic Kalevala and followed the exploits of ‘Väinö’, ‘Ilmari’ and ‘Lemminki’ as they wooed women and went to war with the peoples of the North.
A first among equals
Director and actor Kari Heiskanen was one of the actors chosen for a role in the iconic TV series.
“When we were doing Rauta-aika, Kalle would whip us up into a frenzy, instilled his own intensity in us. As a young actor, I was inspired by Kalle’s directorial style. It matched my vision of how theatre should be made,” he said.
Heiskanen, who has gone on to be one of Finland’s leading directors himself, refers to Holmberg on the occasion of his death as primus inter pares, a Latin phrase meaning first among equals.
“A reinterpretation of Finnish history was apparent in works that Holmberg directed. He then switched from the stage to the opera and worked with the composer Aulis Sallinen, for example,” says Hanna Helavuori of the Theatre Information Centre.
A lifetime journey
Holmberg also worked as the Rector of Finland’s Theatre Academy from 1968 to 1971 and Chief Director of the Turku City Theatre from 1971 to 1977.
Helavuori summed up Holmberg’s life work as that of a ‘great titan’. Holmberg himself preferred to say that he “was on his way to Finland his whole life”.
Kalle Holmberg was born in 1939 in Mikkeli and was married to the dramaturge Ritva Holmberg, who passed away in 2014.
The daily Helsingin Sanomat was the first to report that the director had died. His only child, daughter Annina Holmberg, confirmed the news to Yle on Tuesday.
