HOME | DD
Nyranor — Les Mis: Turku Swedish Theater
Published: 2011-04-09 15:30:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 2617; Favourites: 29; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
A tribute to the exquisite Finnish/Swedish production of Les Misérables by the Åbo Svenska Teater (Turku Swedish Theater), which was introduced to me by *Starlene .The cast list as far as we've been able to determine:
Valjean = Alexander Lycke
Javert = Sören Lillkung
Fantine = Thérèese Karlsson
Cosette = Marika Westerling
Éponine = Josefine Isaksson
Marius = Glenn Nilsson
Enjolras = Rune Sæter
Grantaire = Tore Norrby
...and Gavroche. We're not sure who this is...
A trailer for the production can be seen here: [link]
A TV feature of a live performance of Än En Dag (One Day More) can be seen here: [link]
...Oh, yeah, about the picture: this is a freehand pencil sketch (using as many reference pictures/videos as I could get my hands on, distressingly few in several cases) edited in Photoshop.
Related content
Comments: 45
Very expressive and I love how you did the hair
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Enjoying reading your comments. Hopefully you´ll come and see the comeback of Les Mis in Åbo soon. Maybe some more great art will come out of it too. Thanx for remembering my dimples. Best regards Enjolras.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hi!
I must first say that I am absolutely overjoyed to hear from you. I’m delighted that you like my tribute. This is something of a novel experience to me, I don’t know what to say! May I ask how you found your way here?
It is my dearest wish to attend one of your performances in Åbo, but as the end of the production looms I fear it may never be realized. None of my breaks from school coincide with the remaining performances. Summer has ended and Les Mis will be over before Thanksgiving break. Never the less, I have no doubt that I will be inspired to draw more art whether or not I can see the show in person!
As to the dimples, please don’t take this the wrong way, but you are the most adorable Enjolras I have ever seen. Also, I love your costume. I am an avid fan of the original novel and I believe your red and black coat suits the character much better than the bright, glittery vest used in most productions.
Be marvelous on Thursday. I wish you an exquisite season. The best of luck to you and your colleagues!
With admiration and glee,
Nyranor
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for your respect and honesty. It would be great to see some more of your drawings. They should definetely be framed and showcased on my wall back in Norway. Perhaps you could send some to the theatre? My costume... yes, I do agree that Ellen Cairns has done a marvellous job with it, and I straight away fell in love with the coat. I like taking some liberties when it comes to creating a character, and I do believe the coat (among other things) helps Enjolras to stand out in the crowd.
Ill be hungry for a great performance on thursday. We are ready. Good luck with school, and may you have a warm and cosy autumn.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I shall definitely have more to show soon. You’ve quite effectively reignited my fascination with this splendid production! (Seriously, you have no idea the madness you’ve set in motion...) Unfortunately, I’m currently having technical difficulties with Photoshop, but I'm hoping to get it fixed today.
Now, as to sending the pictures, that was quite the subject of worry and debate back in April: should they be mailed, sent to *Starlene (my wonderful accomplice) to print and give in hard copy, sent digitally directly to the theater? I finally decided to email the file, and from the reply I believe it got through, but that’s all I know. Is that the proper way to go about it, or should I do something else?
By the way, do you happen to know the name of the blond lad who played Gavroche? I’d like to be able to properly name everyone in the picture.
I expect to hear many great stories about all of you! Good luck! And thank you, but I live in a desert. I yearn for the cold weather. ^_^ It’s so exciting, soon I’ll be able to wear coats again!
Best wishes,
Ny
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Excellent. Thank you! I think your Gavroche is Markus Tynkkynen (charming/outgoing and streetlike), but it could also be Ville Huhtala. Ive ruined my voice, and with two more shows this week its a gamble. Hopefully Ill come out of it standing on my feet... Starlene is watching this saturday? Well, Ill try my best.
Best wishes right back at ya. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you! (He’s the one from all the promotional pictures on the website, if that helps narrow it down.)
I was hoping to have the new tribute done by the premier, but I bit off a bit more than I could chew. (13 people this time) Now the picture is finally drawn and scanned, and I’m currently working on the editing. With luck I’ll be able to send it off tonight or tomorrow.
Oh no! 
That’s right, and from what I hear the show was wonderful! She was absolutely ecstatic.
With mingled excitement and concern,
Ny
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The more I think about it, the more the newest press photos feel inspired by this to me - not that the poses are similar or anything, but the general concept of having all the main characters there. Maybe someone was, at least, subconsciously affected!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
O.o Accidental subliminal messages? Ooh, fun... 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
that is so lovely!! i like the picture a lot!! i love les miserables too!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Decided to feature this at [link] for sheer awesomeness!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yay, another page! Incidentally, would you like me to reread The Hero for grammar/spelling/etc for you? I'm sometimes known as "Ny the Nitpicker" for a reason
Thanks for the feature. ^-^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
If you're willing to do that, I'd really appreciate it!
And no problem!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It will have to take a backseat to Operation Åbo Fan Letter, but I'll see what I can do.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Don't hurry with it, Operation Åbo is absolutely more important! I can only start making the mini-albums in two weeks because art school is closed for Easter, so there's no hurry.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Really good one!!!! I love it XD!!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh, WOW!!
I'm, by the way, all for your planned invasion of Finland (yes, I'm a major comment stalker)!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Approval, yay!
I'm really glad you think Karlsson came out right; she gave me the most trouble of the lot. And, as ever, I am my own worst critic, but Saeter's nose bothers me... Also, I forgot to ask earlier: does your Grantaire usually go with the clean shaven look, or was that just in the Thalia-gaala? Most Grantaires are lightly scruffy, and it might help with his sort of bland face and vacant expression... :/
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
More than approval! Just... A giant YAY!
Don't be bothered about the nose, at least I think it's a very nice one!
Argh, that's a hard question! I've a friend with a practically photographic memory, and of course Les Mis is the one musical she stubbornly refuses to see, even if I promise to pay all expenses... But I think he has a little stubble. That's what I seem to remember, and that's what I think he has in the only picture my programme has of him (even though the most of his face can't be seen behind Gavroche).
It's kind of my secret dream to go to the Finnish Les Mis (or any Les Mis actually) with my international Mizzie friends. My IRL friends are awesome of course, and it's also fun just going alone, but I believe nothing could top seeing it with other Mizzies! It would be so much to discuss it afterwards with you guys instead of sitting in the train with my IRL friends, me being all hyped and "OH MY IT WAS THE BEST" and them saying "Yeah, anything special in school next week?"
But all hope is not gone, surely that day will come once - and rest assured, if you manage to go to Finland, I'll do my best to make sure it'll be awesome!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Delighted to contribute. 
Hmm, but how much is "yay, fanart" as opposed to "seriously, getting kinda creepy"? I have a tendency to draw things ad nauseam. No guarantees either way, my artistic inclinations can be as variable as the wind, but I may end up with 7 Enjolrai, 12 Valjeans, and 18 Javerts and so forth....
What's her issue with Les Mis? (I object!)
Well, I might try adding a bit of fuzz and seeing if it's an improvement. Grantaire ought to be scruffy...
I share your dream! (From the other end, of course, but irrelevant.) The tragic thing is, the theater's summer break is even longer than mine, so no overlap!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
No way it's "getting creepy"! It's "yay fanart", 100%!
I don't know about her issue... But I guess it's just a time/effort/money thing - not everybody who's not really into Les Mis wants to sit in a train for five hours in one day just to see it in a language they don't really understand. Sadly.
The show will go on - quoting the theatre's web site now - "only 22 times next fall".
I'm only aware of 20 dates in October and November so far, so I can't really say where the missing two will go. But that "only" seems very definitive to me. Though, to be honest, I'm not surprised. A year and a half is about the time a play usually stays in a theatre's repertoire in Finland. It's not bad at all, Wicked lasted for a year only - and originally I thought so would Les Mis!
Still, I'll miss Les Mis so, so much. 
The replacements are even bigger than I thought. I just read that not only Cosette, but Marius will be replaced, too. By a dude that has, granted, done the role before... But he looks kind of un-Marius-like to me: [link] - oh well, I'll get over this. Maybe he's really good too. I just love Nilsson's Marius so much!
But now I'm wondering if there will be more changes. Metsäketo is very famous in Finland, he won Dancing With The Stars a couple of years ago and does concerts and whatnot. But I'm a little afraid if they replace Enjolras or some other role that is played by a pretty unknown actor, they won't really scream about it. But maybe not. It's the paranoia again. And I've become one of those people I used to dislike who complain loudly every time the tiniest ensemble role gets replaced. I don't want to be that, I want to be optimistic and hope they don't just replace, they upgrade!
Still, no matter what, they can't change the fact this is a great production!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I hope so... (No danger of either, yet, but the fascination is going strong)
Ah, yes, one of those. I've forced the TAC on a few people, some of whom were less than thrilled. My obsession modus operandi is to do my best to spread it like the plague...
Only 22 times... only next fall... 
Marius? That's sad, Nilsson seemed quite good. Oh well, the new lad doesn't look too bad, a bit too Enjolraic, perhaps, but presumably he's a good singer/actor. I'm sure he'll do fine.
That is a worrisome possibility... but presumably they'd announce it if a really major role was being replaced... wouldn't they?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Spread it like the plague, that's good! Less than thrilled, that very well sums up the mood in my TAC watching party...
I hope I'll have to take those words back about only 22 times...
The tickets for next fall were released for sale yesterday and, I'm not kidding here, about half of them have been bought already. The first show is practically sold out, and the stalls are quite full in many others. If it's doing this well I think they will at least consider continuing it! Don't know if they'll actually continue, though. If the ordeal of replacing even more actors is bigger than whatever the benefit of continuing Les Mis would be... But maybe there's some hope!
On a weird side note, there'll be a production of Les Mis premiering in Malmö, Sweden next fall. I have to figure out a way to see it...
I'll keep stalking their web site three times a day and will scream around the internet in horror if Enjolras or especially Javert suddenly gets replaced, you'll notice it...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Muahahaha! Flourish, my seedling Mizzie minions, flourish and spread!
Well, the responses I've gotten have been positive in the majority, there's just the few who go "meh." The parental units enjoyed it, as did the siblings and sibling's school friends. It was actually my friend who didn't really like it.
We can hope.
Oh, wow, that sounds promising. I sincerely hope they continue to do so well, and that it convinces them to Keep the production going.
Hmm, perhaps it too will be fabulous. Good luck getting to it.
I wait with bated breath...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Mmmmh Monsieur L'Inspecteur Javert!!!!!
I like very much the picture in gray scale. It's very elegant.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oui
I think it works better this way. I considered coloring it, but I think doing that would mess up the composition. Too much bright at the edges, it would draw attention to the wrong areas.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
It looks fantastic!
What video references did you use? I've been wanting to see more since the An En Dag video...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you ^-^
The only two videos of this production that are on the Internet I linked in the description, but I also used a few unrelated videos of Sören Lillkung singing in some choir event. (Not sure what, since I don't speak Swedish. I just found them by Googling his name.) There are several, but this one's my favorite: [link] His solo starts at 1:00.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Now I am a) very sad that I am not in Finland so I can't see the production and b) that the production has closed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I agree completely and commiserate point a), but as to point b) according to *Starlene , who I look to as the ultimate authority on news for Åbo Svenska Teater: "They're closing for this spring on April 30th ... And then they'll have a really long summer break and continue in the beginning of next October (or so it seems, it might be the dates still change a little)" So it's possible there is hope! In my wildest dreams ~sigh~
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I must have misread on point b!
Operation run away to Finland must commence.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Glad to be of service ~bow~
Yes!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you ^-^ (I love the word 'impeccable.' It's just so fun to say.)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha! It suits them perfectly, esp. Javert!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
