SCENE 4: 7 OCTOBER 1710

1 sound

See more for English translation.

PASTOR You return to the ground, since from it you were taken, ashes to ashes...

GRAVEDIGGER Could the pastor move a little aside? This grave is not ready yet, Elias Mickelsson still needs to be put in it.

PASTOR Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Jesus Christ, our Saviour, shall resurrect you on the Day of Judgement. There.

GRAVEDIGGER Doesn’t the Pastor wish to say something more?

PASTOR That’ll do. Cover them up.

GRAVEDIGGER Elias Mickelsson. You were a good feldsher to all of us townsfolk. You tended to many. Amen.

PASTOR There. Now you can cover them up.

GRAVEDIGGER Nah, there’s room for another. At least a small un.

PASTOR You are keeping to the rules? At least three feet on top of each grave.

GRAVEDIGGER Over that way! You can unload there. There’s an almost empty grave.

If the Pastor wants to make himself useful, you could keep the dogs away from the corpses.

PASTOR The regulations clearly state that the bodies are to be buried deep in the ground so that the vapors do not -

GRAVEDIGGER Pastor, Sir. We’d all be happier if there were more corpse bearers so that the dead wouldn’t have to lie rotting in the streets.

And we’d all be glad if we had more gravediggers so that the bodies that arrive could be put into the ground straight away.

Should the Pastor wish to use his time measuring the piles of earth on top of the graves then the Pastor may do as he pleases.

PASTOR You as a gravedigger ought not to -

GRAVEDIGGER Oi! Keep away from there! There’s nothing to steal here.

AGNES Where can I lay myself?

GRAVEDIGGER You ought not to be here. There’s contagion here. You could fall ill.

AGNES I am already sick. There is no one left at home… who could ...open...put me on the corpse cart. Do not want...to be left on the street.

I will lay here. Is that alright?

Don’t want...everyone in town...to see me ...dead. Will the Pastor pray… for my soul?

PASTOR Err. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Almighty Father -

She coughs blood. Should we not -

GRAVEDIGGER (sings) Sleep, now sleep, the night is deep. Time to rest your head. A time for quiet and a time for peace -

Will you close her eyes, or shall I?

PASTOR Perhaps we are almost done for the day soon? I have a great deal of paperwork to...

GRAVEDIGGER We’re not going to be done until the whole town is lying here. In a month we’ll all be dead. But, you go ahead and go home, Pastor. We can manage.

PASTOR Yes.

Three feet!

GRAVEDIGGER (sings) Put your hands together my child and pray Pray death and pestilence go away Put your hands together my child and pray Pray death and pestilence go away

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 4: 7 OCTOBER 1710

Part of this walk

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

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