Finland's Moomins stepping onstage in China debut

Chinese actors rehearse the Sino-Finnish theatrical play King in the Moominvalley.[Photo by Wei Xiaohao/ China Daily]

Along with his family, the Moomins, Moomintroll－a little boy, who is a white creature resembling a hippopotamus－lives in a place called Moominvalley. His family enjoys freedom and adventures. He likes making friends.

Ever since Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson introduced those characters in a series of books in Swedish between 1945 and 1993, the stories of the family have been translated into more than 40 languages and adapted into movies, TV series, musicals and theatrical works.

The theatrical play King in the Moominvalley will be staged in Chinese with English subtitles in Beijing from Dec 30 to Jan 17.

This year marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Finland.

Jointly produced by artists from the China National Theater for Children and Finland, the play is based on The Moomins. It tells the story of a king who lives nearby and comes to the Moominvalley to meet his neighbors.

The Moomins' carefree nature makes them different from others so the king wants to teach them manners and to obey rules. However, the king's idea turns out to be wrong.

"People will see themselves in the play. The happiness lies in being yourself and doing what you really want to do," says Finnish director Marcus Groth, who is working with Chinese actors in Beijing.

Groth is also an actor with the Finnish National Theater in Helsinki. Like many children in Finland, he grew up with this fairy tale.

"The writer lived in a family where her father was a sculptor and her mother was a painter. They had a lot of friends. It wasn't a usual family," Groth says.

"Personally, I grew up with my elder brother after losing my parents when I was 10 years old. We had a lot of friends and we lived close to nature. There were not so many rules. Like Jansson's and the Moomins' families, we were tolerant toward diversity."

It will be the first time for the play to be staged in China.