ABSTRACT
The chapter surveys how high and low in the context of the domestic repertoire of the National Theatre traditionally played a significant role when it came to providing a space for domestic national drama to be developed and staged. In the 1970s the Theatre searched for its own angle on national dramatic classics, and the dramatic successes of the next decade were enabled by the advent of a new generation of stage directors and an increasingly flexible approach to performing classics. The new theatre leadership openly welcomed the folk theatre genre and championed folk formats that resonated with contemporary society and the national mood. Despite the 1980s’ shift towards the contradictory characters sketched by female dramatists the productions of classics did not excite much public debate. The National Theatre eventually succeeded in its depictions of the nation’s ideological movements and in the end also of a new kind of social and political theatre. The art of theatrical recitals has a long tradition in Finland, and at the National Theatre, there were frequent poetry evenings on the Small Stage and Willensauna stage.
