TY - BOOK AU - Halme,Kaarle TI - Pöllönkorven naamiaisyö T2 - Seuranäytelmiä ; 214 AV - PH PY - 2025/// CY - Salt Lake City, UT PB - Project Gutenberg KW - Comedy plays KW - Finnish drama -- 20th century N1 - Release date is 2025-11-29; Tapio Riikonen; Originally published; Hämeenlinna: Arvi A. Karisto Oy, 1920 N2 - "Pöllönkorven naamiaisyö" by Kaarle Halme is a three-act comedic play written in the early 20th century. Set around a lively masquerade night at a provincial inn, it follows the blustering landowner Esa Pöllönkorpi, the smooth-talking traveler Freckstedt, Vilho Härjänheimo, and coachman Kalle Kaljunen as their flirtations with Anna (Annastiina Tissala), Siina, and others spiral into farce. The play pokes fun at rural pride, social climbing, and the notion of “multa-aateli” (true worth versus hollow gentility) through disguise, misrecognition, and boastful promises. The opening of the play places everyone in a snowbound inn where rooms are scarce and a masquerade downstairs draws the guests into mischief. Kalle flirts haplessly with the brisk Anna and, in disguise, accidentally kisses the pretentious Siina; meanwhile, Pöllönkorpi and Freckstedt arrive, bluffing titles and trading quips about class. Pöllönkorpi, puffed up with wealth and pride, hunts for his former dairymaid Annastiina, hides a bulging wallet, and debates with Kalle and Härjänheimo about what makes someone “multa-aatelia,” leading to Arvi’s neat definition: to become truly civilized without aping the gentry. Masked encounters multiply: Pöllönkorpi mistakes Siina for Annastiina and is humiliatingly exposed when she unmasks. By the start of the third act, the men vow to drown embarrassment in revelry and hastily strike deals, while Anna prepares a sharp letter to Pöllönkorpi about his courting and retreat, and Siina fumes—half from wounded pride, half from the force of an all-too-hearty kiss. (This is an automatically generated summary.) UR - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77367 ER -