The storytelling and music in the production are brilliant, but for me, the main strength lies in its rawness. In true storytelling tradition, the narrative doesn’t feel perfectly scripted – the words seem as though they might change to suit the audience or the storyteller’s mood. This feels very true to the spirit of passing on an oral tradition. I could imagine this performance would work equally well in front of a roaring fire in a pub, in a family living room over mugs of hot chocolate, or under the Northern Lights where Väinämöinen himself might stop to listen.

” . . . The playful, experimental nature of the production was one of my favourite things about it. Performed against a plain screen hung in front of some scaffolding, there were few props; effects were achieved using lighting and handfuls of coloured powder flung into the air. Hanna Bjork and Maria Sendow coordinated the music which drove the performance – haunting folk songs and poems over cello refrains . . . a wonderful way to portray a difficult subject . . .”