SCENE 7: 28 APRIL 1711

1 sound

See more for English translation.

SELMA (sings) Sleep, child, sleep, until we meet, once more in God’s heaven.

This is where my sisters lie. Ebba and Ester. I was at home with a fever when they were buried. I was not allowed to say goodbye, but now I come here often to sing to them instead.

During the autumn, 1185 people died of the plague in this little town. Most of them are buried here. Helsinki lost two-thirds of its inhabitants. I lost my entire family.

That autumn was a nightmare. We thought the plague would not disappear until everyone was dead. But, suddenly, in January it was all over. And some of us had survived. I had survived. Although no one thought that I would. Not even me.

And those of us who survive: we carry life forward. And we keep the memories alive so that no one will forget those who died, those who mourned, and those who laboured to save lives.

This dreadful year will turn out to be the start of a better life for many: there is more cultivation land to be shared by the survivors, trees will be planted in the new regions, the poor will be better off.

After a while, I will be happy again. I will live a long life and when I die, as an old woman, I will be buried under that big tree over there, to the right. Can you see?

And before that I shall find someone to love. I will have many children and grandchildren.

And some of them will die of scarlet fever, whooping cough, cholera, or other pestilences.

But many of them will survive. And they will carry life onwards. Onwards to your time, and beyond that.

(Two children run by, in the present.)

CHILD Ice-cream, ice-cream, ice-cream!

SELMA Life goes on. Can you hear it?

(A live band starts to play in the park.)

SELMA (sings) Wake up child, it’s summertime There is time for life.

Would you close your eyes for a moment? Close your eyes. Can you feel the wind on your cheek?

Fill your lungs with air. Breathe. How does it feel? Can you smell the grass? Exhaust fumes? Life. A new beginning?

What do you long for most right now? A hug from someone you miss?

May I give you a hug? Come.

Life will get easier.

Part of this walk

Voices from the Year of the Plague - An audio journey through the autumn of 1710

Potsdam

In the autumn of 1710, the plague swept through the small town of Helsinki and killed two-thirds of its inhabitants. The dead were buried in a graveyard that is today called Plague Park. During the summer of 2020, Swedish-speaking YLE Drama enabled the public to travel back in time to the year of the plague. The binaural and site-specific audio drama ´Voices from the Year of the Plague´ can only be heard in the same park where the victims of the plague lie buried. During the week of Prix Europa we bring a part of the Plague Park to our European colleagues and give you four audio scenes at the yard in Potsdam. ‘Voices from the Year of the Plague’ was created in order to be produced and performed during the corona pandemic. The manuscript was written so that the recordings could be carried out with just one actor at a time in the studio. Even the actual performance itself is corona safe. The listeners, visitors, use their own phones, headphones and the GPS-guided app Echoes to experience the audio drama, which can only be heard if one stands at the right spot in the park. The drama can be visited on all weekdays, around the clock, in order to prevent too many from gathering in the park at the same time. The drama was recorded using binaural technology that gives the listener the feeling of being inside the drama, as though the characters were talking directly to them, and that the sounds they hear really do emanate from the park. There are seven longer scenes in the original drama, as well as a number of hidden ‘Easter eggs’, mini scenes that one cannot see on the map, but which pop up in the headphones when the visitor happens to step into the right areas. The drama leads the listener through the increasing horror of the autumn of 1710 and out to the other side of the pandemic into the spring of 1711 - and the beginning of new a new life. All the scenes are played out in the graveyard. The events in the drama correspond to reality. Many of the people depicted really did exist. In the second to last scene many of the 1185 plague victims who lie buried under the listeners’ feet introduce themselves by their names and occupations that were chronicled in the church register. Put on your headphones, press "Stream walk" and start your journey back to the Year of the Plague.

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SCENE 7: 28 APRIL 1711

Part of this walk

Voices from the Year of the Plague - An audio journey through the autumn of 1710

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