ABSTRACT
During 1974 and 1991, British drama still occupied a prominent position at the Finnish National Theatre, and the National Theatre also welcomed multiple theatre companies from China and Japan. Only one visiting theatre company from Sweden was seen at the National Theatre during this period. Visiting theatrical productions from the Eastern Bloc functioned as a form of bridge between the West and the countries who were behind the Iron Curtain. Overall, the total number of visits fell, but many of them were all the more impressive. Visits by the National Theatre to other countries had to wait until the 1980s to really get started. Visiting British companies would often put on Shakespeare plays, and British actors were deemed to represent a higher level of the dramatic arts. The Theatre Director Kai Savola kept a tight grip on Finnish-Soviet theatre collaborations; the relationship with the Soviets was challenging yet progressive, and internationally renowned Soviet productions were staged in Finland. The activation of the Finnish-Estonian connection coincided with Mikhail Gorbachev’s political reforms in the Soviet Union, the perestroika and glasnost, as well as a new national awakening in Estonia.
