First, he is born in Pripyat, Ukraine, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The midwife notices that he’s ugly, clutching stones in both hands.
Then the power plant’s nuclear reactor explodes, contaminating the surrounding area. After this, a Finnish entrepreneurial couple adopts him. In an emotionally cold home, he retreats into himself. Growing up in front of a computer, he becomes an eco-terrorist.
"Modern people are lonely and narcissistic; they are unable to truly connect with others."
The adoptive mother tries to coax the stone child into playing in the Pripyat maternity hospital.
"Finland is a welfare state, yet there’s a very cold atmosphere here. Everyone lives solely on an individual level, focusing only on their own life."
In the play The Black Stork White, by the theater group Pieni Kuu (translated Small Moon), the white stone boy grows up without love or warmth.
“His foster parents are somewhat disturbed. For instance, the father, Jussi, goes to Russia to engage in pseudo-business dealings and searches for a Russian woman he met once in his youth.”
The only contrast to the pervasive emotional coldness is the Pripyat village midwife.
“She was there at the birth of the stone boy, and it is to her that the boy ultimately flees.”
“Within scenes, there are sometimes cuts where the action shifts from real events to inside someone’s mind. In Pieni Kuu's previous play Sputnik, Kivinen used a similar technique.”
The play was performed in Kuopio and also in Mikkeli during the Workers' Theatre Days.
The team behind The Black Stork White is nearly the same as for the group’s previous play, with the only newcomer being Sami Liukka, who plays the growing child in the lead role.
The set design is by Jukka Horsmanheimo, lighting by Jussi Koskela, and costumes by Katri Suonio. Cast members include Pauli Taskinen, Outi Turunen, Tiina Voutilainen, Jussi Hartikainen, and Jari Holopainen.
The Black Stork White premieres on October 4, 2003. Performances will be held at Työnkulma, in the University Theater Hall.