Finish Dinner and A Show at Palmquist Farm
Eino and Toivo: A Three Act Country Comedy
When: 7:00pm June 16th and 17th, 2:00pm June 18th
Play Price: $7/seat
Reservations required: call 715.564.2253 or 715.564.3350
Traditional Finnish meal served by Palmquist Farm
Where: Farm house at Palmquist Farm
When: Before each show
Meal Price: $15/adult, $7.50/child (ages 4-12)
Reservations required: call 715.564.2558
Palmquist Farm is also taking reservations for overnight guests who want to make a weekend of it!
Reservations required: call 715.564.2558
Palmquist Farm is also taking reservations for overnight guests who want to make a weekend of it!
On Saturday June 17th there will also be a Finnish Day Centennial Celebration in Brantwood 2:00-5:00pm. Includes speakers and Finnish Wood Carving Exibit!
Play Description
A comedy that tells the story of a fence that was never finished, the great conflict between Toivo and Eino, the love between their children, and the story about the black bull and red cows!
Why this play? How'd it all come about?
by Bill Hoffman
Several years ago while I was researching some history of Brantwood, Wisconsin, I ran across an item showing that a play was performed in Finnish at the Brantwood Hall on July 2, 1950 for the Knox Town Golden Jubilee.
A couple years ago I became aware of the centennial of Finland to be celebrated in 2017. I brainstormed that it would be nice to perform that play again for the event in 2017.
While researching the play I was unable to find an actual playbook for the play, but did discover that the play was written by Gustaf af Geijerstam as a play in Sweden in 1894, under the title Lars Anders och Jan Anders och Deras Barn (Lars Anders and Jan Anders and Their Children).
As stated by Mr. Geijerstam, this is a country comedy in three acts "about a fence which was never finished, about the great conflict between Jan Anders and Lars Anders plus the unhappy love between their children, further about the great and well known fight in Lars Ander's cottage, plus the satirical song about the miserly old timers, about how Jonas got his widow plus about the black bull and the red cows, along with other entertaining adventures."
The play was translated into Finnish in 1925 by Kaarle Halme with the title Junula ja Tanula. It was this version that was performed in Brantwood, in 1950. The play cast included Adolph and Hannah Hendrickson, Sylvia Wasti, William Luhtala, Vilda Isaacson, William Jokela, Oscar Wiita and Vienna Kaski.
I googled the original title and discovered that the play was somewhere in cyberspace on the internet in its entirety. I then contacted a Swedish translator in St. Paul, Stefan Sylvander, and had him translate the play directly off the internet into English in 2015.
The play has now been adapted for local production under the name Eino and Toivo. This will be the world premiere of the English language version of the play.
Included in the play cast this time around will be Terry Wasti, son of Sylvia who was in the production in 1950. The play is being directed by Joyce Summers, who has directed plays for many years.
This is a community supported event. Supporting organizations include the Brantwood Credit Union, Central Wisconsin Finnish American Club, German Settlement History, Inc., Jump River Valley Historical Society, Knox Creek Heritage Center, Koskela House Finnish Museum, Price County Genealogical Society and the Price County Historical Society.
posted by Palmquist Farm at 11:51 AM0 comments
