The Main Stage

As the original, purpose-built stage of The Finnish Theatre, the Main Stage represents the oldest and largest section of the present-day building.  Completed in 1902, the construction project was huge.  In a city of 82,000 inhabitants, which was still predominantly Swedish-speaking at the turn of the century, a 1034-seat proscenium arch theatre was an enormous undertaking. Although it was an ambitious project, the enthusiasm which accompanied it led to rapid results.  The first foundation stone was laid in 1900, and it was only one year and nine months later that the theatre was inaugurated on the 9th of April 1902.  The Finnish Theatre, founded in 1872, had evolved into The Finnish National Theatre.

The Finnish Theatre’s fundamental ideology was to be a theatre of the people.  This was even evident in the new building’s seating plans.  The upper balcony contained as many seats as the stalls.  Admittedly, the balcony seating was wooden and could only be reached via the twisting staircase which led up from the side street, but the tickets were so cheap that even ‘commoners’ could afford to come to the theatre.  Nowadays the seating is comfortably upholstered throughout, reducing the auditorium’s places to approximately 800.

Sari Schulman, the architect who led the extensive restoration of the Finnish National Theatre from its investigative phase in 1998 to its completion in 2002, wrote in her appraisal of the building:  “The theatre, designed by the architect Onni Tarjanne, is a national architectural monument of major significance for Finnish cultural history.  The design represents the contemporary combination of national aspirations and international influences which came to be known as Finnish Jugend architecture.  The stone façade is cut from Finnish granite and many of the interior features reflect the period’s national romanticism.  The overall effect of the interior is continental and relatively rationalistic, in the Viennese style.  The original hues of the foyer space relied on yellows and whites as well as on natural and stained wood surfaces.  The colour tones of the interiors are crowned by the auditorium’s Italian red walls.  In its day, the theatre was ahead of its time from both a structural and technical point of view.  It was also the largest theatre in Northern Europe.”

Throughout its history, the Main Stage has remained at the forefront of theatrical technological innovation, as Janne Auvinen, technical planner for the renovation, has noted: “The first items of technical equipment were introduced as early as 1902, during the initial construction of the building.  Hoists imported from Germany were used to move and hang the painted backdrops.  The theatre’s lighting system was also ahead of its time.  The building was substantially wired for electricity, and electric lamps were used on stage in place of the fire-hazardous oil and gas systems.  Technology transformed the stage itself in 1917, when the theatre’s master carpenter and technical director, Jalmari Alppivuori, built a manually operated revolving stage for a production of The Merchant of Venice.  Since then the stage has seen three revolving stages, the most recent of which now revolves silently in its completely reconstructed  platform.”