The Knocking

The Knocking is a story about lifeless life and the lack of courage. At the centre of the play is the dentistry professor Juhani Vaara, who has spent his whole life in disciplined orderliness, pedantically following timetables. The play starts with a dream in which Juhani loses his teeth. Soon after, this also happens to him in real life. A glance at a books of dreams tells that losing one’s teeth means death. From here on, he always loses a tooth when he makes a decision that numbs him. One evening, a new chance is presented to Juhani in the form of Ulla Heinänen, a young woman and a mathematician, who steps into his life and with her a strange attraction develops. The timetable that Juhani has been following until now, namely his lover Anna Aalto, is also the ex-wife of Juhani’s best friend Yrjö Holmström. Yrjö, in turn, is attracted to Juhani’s daughter, Suvi-Maria Vaara-Rintakoski. In the end both Suvi-Maria and Yrjö escape from life, the former with the help of pills, the latter by blocking parts of reality. Juhani doesn’t dare to choose a new beginning with Ulla Heinänen. Instead, he chooses what he is accustomed to: Anne Aalto. (Tinfo/Sunklo)