Kajakkvinnen* (The Canoe Woman)

In the program for the production Kajakkvinnen* (The Canoe Woman) by Sampo Teater and Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter/The Norwegian National Sami Theatre Company the following, among other things, is written:

"Anna is mute. She has no words to convey her experiences and emotions. Who hails from another country, another culture or belongs to an indigenous people can recognise this struggle to find words. The new language isn't always sufficient to convey the world and the experiences one is carrying."

Quote Harriet Nordlund, director

"With Kajakkvinnen Sampo Teater has realised its wish to establish a production enterprise across ethnic and national borders, where Nordic creative artists of different backgrounds have met in practical artistic work."

Quote Anitta Suikkari, Sampo Teater

"Kajakkvinnen by Per Verner-Calrsson is a play discussing communication across cultures and languages. Verner-Carlsson has been interested in Antonin Artaud, the French theatre visionary who wanted to emphasise the physical expression, and who considered the actor as a symbol, meant to flame. He wanted to examine this linguistically in his play Kajakkvinnen, performed at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 1982. It is about a woman about to get divorced and how language or the understanding of language plays an important part in her process. [...] The female language is intuitive and logical at the same time. The woman needs to become aware of her own language to be able to act, the way indigenous people have had to do the same. That is why I think there has been a clear, powerful id behind Harriet Nordlund's treatment of the text by Verner-Carlsson."

Quote Knut Ove Arntzen

The production and the tour were supported by: Arts Council Norway, The Audio Visual Fund, Nordic Council of Ministers' committee for performing arts, Nordic Culture Fund, The Fund for Performing Artists. The Arts Festival of North Norway on tour, the county of Finnmark.

SOURCES:

The National Sami Theatre Beaivváš, beaivvas.no, 21.06.2021, http://beaivvas.no/nb/forestillinger/

Sampo Teater's private archive. Donated by Anitta Suikkari, 15.05.2009

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.

Hilde Skancke Pedersen, Review titled Kollbøtter i et mysterium (literally: Somersaults in a mystery), date unknown, Finnmark Dagblad:

"A strong team of selective artists stand behind a liberatingly playful expression, a modern expression void of readily chewed topics and solutions. Anitta Suikkari is nuanced, subdued, humorous and powerful as Anna. The audience gets to take part in the dialogue the actress lead with her character, an exciting and rewarding meeting. [...] One can hope that there are people around the county starving for challenging, demanding and rewarding theatre, theatre about silence and telling communication, served with spirituality, melancholy and humour."

Ulf Sverresvold, Review titled Om å være stum - på mange språk (literally: About being mute - in many languages), 30.06.2001, Nordlys:

"It was as if she came to life in a slide, stepped out of a hill of garbage. The garbage is a result from all we wish for. [...] And it ends again in the slide of garbage. The result of all we wish for. And a strange parallel to language and knowledge. There is a lot we have no use for, but what we need, we can't find. Forcefully done!"

Marianne Söderberg, Sökandet efter ett språk, 14.09.2001, Norrbottens kuriren [Norrbotten]:

"A community of wellfare - belonging together, memory, emotion, communication. Data, Bird, Charlie Parker, Charlie Mingus. Anna has many words. Still she lacks a language. Some place along the road of her life she lost herself, became mute and a stranger to her own reality. Now she is seeking words, a language, a skeleton. A language to live in and with. [...] Still there are too many words to consider. The production never lifts from the ground, despite much and obvious will. Because the questions posed in the production are important: What should we do to turn our backs to emptiness and how do we find the words to connect our thoughts in describing a new time?"

Lars Böhlin, Review titled Obegriplig pjäs om svårigheten att förstå (literally: Incomprehensible piece about the difficulty of understanding), 12.09.2001, Västerbottens Folkblad:

"Personally I gave up when Anitta Suikkari danced around with the light tubes for so to pull her veil over her head while the cellist Øyvind Engen and the pre-recorded music presented musically disharmonic backdrop. I had no idea what she was doing. For this reviewer that became a remarkable illustration of how the lack of communication can lead to full block."