Theatre
The Parson's Family
Papin perhe
Minna Canth · 1891
Opening lines
Elisabeth
Maijuu!
Maijuu!
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
A country pastor in Savonia, Henrik Valtari rules his household harshly and is about to take charge of a conservative religious paper. His children no longer want to live as he does: his son Jussi, a student in Helsinki, writes in the newspapers and defends the new ideas; Hanna must bow to the decisions her father makes for her; the youngest, Maiju, seventeen, dreams of being an actress and secretly rehearses Ibsen's A Doll's House with her brother and their friend Teuvo Rastas.
Context
A play in four acts, first performed at the Finnish Theatre on 23 January 1891, it sets in a rectory the quarrel that then opposed the conservative Old Finns to the liberal Young Finns. Critics have seen in it a return by its author, after her dramas of social anger, to a more conciliatory vision, based on love. It remains in the repertoire of the National Theatre. Alexandre André translated it into French under the title La Famille du pasteur; Owen F. Witesman gave an English version in 2002, The Parson's Family.
Who it is for
Four acts, in Finnish. It is better to know what then separated the Old Finns from the Young Finns in Finland, and what place the theatre held in that debate.
Prizes and reception
Its author's best-known and most frequently performed play, counted among the classics of Finnish theatre.