SAMI NATIONAL THEATRE: JOHAN TURI

 -Nasunala theather  guovdageaidnu norga-

The play was set up at The Norwegian Theatre situated in Oslo last Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Because a close friend of mine, Gunnar Gjengset, is one of the authors of the play, I took time to attend the performance. A splendid play and a splendid performance played by Idor Antte Ailu Gaup, Inga Marja Sarre and Egil Kestitalo.

 The play was written by Gunnar Gjengset

and Harald Gaski.

The content of the play was the struggle to write the first Lappish book and the problems to get the book published. The author, Johan Turi, had no formal education. He wanted to make people respect the Lappish people and culture by writing his story about the Lappish way of life, religion, traditions, hunting, medicine used and conflicts with the modern society. In the play we meet three persons on a train travelling between the City of Narvik in Norway and the City of Kiruna in Sweden.Two men and one woman: Johan Turi, Johan Lundbohm and Emile Demant-Halle.

The main person of the play is the first Lappish author Johan Turi .Anyway the authors have made a close description of two  important persons who made it possible for him to write and publish his book: The Swedish businessman and director, Johan Olof Hjalmar Lundbohm ( 1855-1926), and the Danish writer ,artist and folklorist, Emilie Demant –Hatt ( 1873 – 1958).

The performance was a mixture of music, sounds, sound recordings and above all: The use of an electric train which went around the stage from time to time. The actors made use of “ body language”  to express the texts. The languages of Lappish, English and Norwegian were used by the actors with translations on the walls.

Johan Turi was played by actor Idor Antte Ailu Gaup, Johan Lundbohm by actor Egil Keskitalo and actress Inga Marja Sarre played the Danish folklorist Emilie Demant-Hall. The work was well done by all of them.

Johan Turi wrote the book” Muitalus samiid birr”. The  book was published in 1910. The book has been translated to German, Swedish, English, French, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian and Japanese. The Norwegian translation is done by Harald O. Lindbach. The Norwegian title is: Min bok til samene. The translated book was published in 2010.

Johan Turi was born in Kautokaino in 1854. He moved with his family to Sweden in about 1870. The illustrations printed in the book were made by Johan Turi himself. He was owner of reindeers.