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TAMPERE, FINLAND
THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF NILS: Nils Holgersson may not be a familiar name to most people in the U.S. But ask most anyone in Europe, especially in one of the Nordic countries, and they'll explain that he's an ill-behaved lad who mended his ways after flying to Lapland on the back of a goose. (Only, of course, after he'd been shrunk to Thumbelina proportions by a vengeful elf. Come on, now - who ever heard of a goose lifting a grown boy?) For more than a century, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils has taught Swedish students about the geography and wildlife of their country, imparting lessons on bravery and kindness along the way. It was penned by the first female winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Selma Lagerlöf. California director John Blondel! - a distant Lagerlof relation via his paternal great-grandmother - decided this was the story he wanted to tell in his Lit Moon Theatre Company's first co-production with Tampereen Teatteri in Finland. Blondell chose Los Angeles playwright Naomi Iizuka to do the honors of adaptation. "It spoke to the fabulist in her," he explains. "She is wonderful with this kind of material - in the creation of poetic, earthy plays that are at once contemporary and mythic." lizuka's deceptively simple script prompts its cast to use animal physicality in exploring fundamental questions of human life. Nils played in Santa Barbara in September with a U.S. cast, and this month it opens in Tampere with Finnish actors, again under Blondeil's direction, and will become a part of Tampereen Teatteri's repertory. The set design for both productions is by Finland's Marjatta...