A comforting description of a summer that might be the last
Norman and Ethel spend the summer at the Kultalampi summer villa. On the surface, everything is the same as before, but Norman is not what he used to be. The memory is broken, some irreversible change has begun.
Daughter Chelsea will also come to spend the summer with her new husband and his son. Norman feels weak and is not afraid to cause embarrassing situations or embarrass others. It is often difficult for people to find a real connection with each other.
“A summer spent in crisis, but depicted in warm tones,” says director Tuomo Aitta.
Kultalampi, written in 1979, was the debut play of 28-year-old Ernest Thompson. In addition to the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the film won two other Academy Awards, three Golden Globes and a BAFTA Award.
“The film is quite romantic, while the play also emphasizes heavier themes related to giving up and getting older,” Aitta says.
Unforced drama
After reading the script, Aitta was puzzled by how airily written the drama is. “It’s a story written by a natural talent, he probably hasn’t been to lectures focusing on writing traditional drama. It’s an exciting kind of non-drama,” Aitta describes.
Often the plays move towards extremely escalating conflicts, which turn the situation upside down in an instant. In Kultalampi , on the other hand, there are situations where one person would like to start a showdown, but disputes are avoided when someone does not want to open up, or the other simply refuses the challenge.
“It may lose some dramatic effect, but what we gain is that it resembles ordinary life much more than many plays,” Aitta says.
In Aitta’s opinion, the advantage of the play is a certain lightness that comes from the unforced and naturally progressing dialogue: “It’s mundane, funny and random. The characters have humour and warmth even in the midst of all the difficulties.”
For a Finnish viewer, everyday life at a summer cottage is easily recognizable. “Often in American plays there is some cultural distance that you have to think about, but here there is none. We know how to be at the cottage, in the middle of nature.”
Together and separately
Throughout the play, Norman manifests that summer may be his last. However, it is impossible to openly discuss the situation with your wife, and revealing your own helplessness is too scary. In such a situation, it is easy to feel that one’s position is threatened.
In several scenes, the characters then wander around by themselves in the cabin and are confused by the changes. For example, Norman concentrates on reading job advertisements in the newspaper and refuses to leave the room.
Ethel, on the other hand, sings and talks to a wooden doll that has been with her since childhood. As she sings, Ethel somehow goes through the fact that an era in her life is coming to an end and possibly wonders if she has made the right choices in her life after all.
In this sense, the play depicts how separate people are in the end, even if they have been in a long relationship, i.e. deep love and decades lived together. “However, they have Kultalampi, the landscape and the black-throated loon, when they look at it, they forget their own separation and experience beauty and great moments together,” Aitta points out.
Aitta became interested in moments like this, where distances and tensions between people disappear. For example, when you laugh wildly at stupid things or dance and sing a familiar camp song together. “There’s something great about people suddenly being able to be close to each other,” Aitta says.
He emphasizes that we should not be too gloomy when talking about this play: “At the end of the day, this is a comforting play in which people are able to perform the miracle of sharing and lightening each other’s sorrows.”