Production bids farewell to Viljandi hospital through memory

Ugala Theatre’s production Shorter than life explores the memories held by Viljandi’s old hospital building, which is set to disappear. In an interview with Kertu Kändla for ERR, director and set designer Joel Väli described the hospital as a collection of events, moments and stories cast in concrete.

Dramaturg and director Priit Põldma said the production was, in a sense, a ritual: returning to a meaningful place before it disappears and saying goodbye to it.

Encountering the hospital

Priit Põldma: I did my first theatre work in Viljandi about 10 years ago, and since then I have returned to Ugala every few years to make something there. I have no earlier ties or childhood memories of Viljandi, but over those 10 years the city has become a very familiar and inspiring place to me.

I visited the old hospital a couple of times while it was still operating. Coronavirus tests were carried out in the basement. I remember having to go for a test early one December morning. I did not dare take the bus at that hour, so I walked from Ugala to the hospital.

It was very strange when the enormous structure began to appear from behind the fields. It seemed incredible that such a huge building stood on the edge of a small town, among apple orchards, fields and private houses. My first encounter with the building was probably one unconscious impulse behind creating this production.

Whenever I visited the hospital, I was surprised by how pleasant the reception was and how high the standard of the services seemed. But the environment itself felt so outdated.

Joel Väli: I have no personal connection with Viljandi, but my sympathy for the city continues to grow. I agree that strange is a good word to describe the Viljandi hospital. Approaching from the direction of Tallinn, it stands there like an extraterrestrial object or a landmark.

For some time, I did not even know it was a hospital. I thought it was a large apartment building or a hotel.

Places that hold memories

Nostalgia allows people to relive things they have experienced in the past. The old Viljandi hospital is likewise an important place of memory for many people, who return there to look for memories of earlier times.

Joel Väli: Life has not yet been long enough for that, but places from childhood create the most nostalgia. I vividly remember the abandoned Joaveski paper mill in Lahemaa, where I spent time in the summers.

Educational institutions can also be nostalgic, although they are still relatively recent places of memory. But I can imagine that if I went to my first school building now, I would certainly start reminiscing there.

Priit Põldma: It seems to me that nostalgia emerges with distance. I lived in Keila for the first eight years of my life and in Rakvere for the next eight, so I have two childhood cities where I no longer live day to day and whose changes I do not constantly see.

When I visit them occasionally, I experience something that could be called nostalgia. Certain places remind me of events that happened there. I remember buildings or trees that have been replaced by something else, and people who may already have passed away.

I am surprised that distances seem different from how they felt in childhood. Once in Rakvere, I confidently went to a grocery store and only after entering noticed that the building was now a builders’ merchant.

In short, I see these places several times over. Behind what is there now, I constantly see what is no longer there.