Review: Armfelt – sotilas ja kavaljeeri
When dance gets words – and engages in power politics
The small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre offers a piece of Finnish history from a time when the country was firmly between Swedish and Russian power politics. Frej Lindqvist’s play opens the veil of history through the child of its time, the officer Armfelt, who was adored by the courts. This acts as a piece on the courts’ large game board. The play does not offer much information about Armfelt’s real deeds, but it does offer information about the aspirations of the great powers.
The most interesting thing about the whole play is how the dance steps get the words. With the touch of a toe on the parquet, an entire army can be knocked down. Dance has thus been given a referential meaning as an intrigue, negotiation and the conduct of entire wars. Aku Ahjolinna’s choreography is fun and easy to read, even if you don’t understand much about the alphabet of ballet and dance. In the play, Armfelt wanders from his youth to his death. Thus, the viewer is treated to a fair dose of European history, which is also familiar from school books. The powers of state are represented by Emperors Gustav III, Catherine the Great, Gustav IV Adolf and Napoleon himself. Armfelt, Sprengtporten and Potemkin are wielding the military baton.
In a strict dialogue, skill is measured
Santeri Kinnunen’s Armfelt pulsates as a beautiful and even tragic character. Kinnunen’s sense of rhythm comes to the fore in the replication, where we move in a terrain of pauses and frantic bursts. Movement and speech expression are intertwined into a clever play. Even though the play does not offer anything deeper than the surface in all respects, Kinnunen gets a taste of life in the role.
Oskari Katajisto’s Gustav III is probably a treat for the actor. It provides an opportunity for a very multifaceted interpretation, which Katajisto makes excellent use of. The king, who is looking for his gender, lives in the middle ground between theatre and reality, where all kinds of exaggeration are allowed. The role flourishes as a self-sufficiency that is whimsical, capricious and uses power. Kinnunen’s and Katajisto’s scenes together have the feeling of two great actors meeting. Words and emotions are flowing, but controlled and icy precise. Kristiina Elstelä’s Catherine the Great is a bit of a joke. Through the chubby ballerina, the comic is realized most clearly. As a strong ruler, Catherine holds many marionette threads in her fingers elsewhere. Jyrki Kovaleff’s Potemkin is the juiciest of these. Matti Rasila’s Sprengtporten is a precise work in which the content of the text meets expression well. A tendon, which supports the entire play, has been built for this character as an interpreter of Finland’s position. The unsmiling role also makes the surrounding theatrical life sober. Kinnunen, Elstelä, Rasila and Katajisto are all exemplary interpreters of good speech expression. The fast-paced dialogue is a stumbling block for too many people in this play. It would be nice to hear everything that is said on stage and not be left guessing the endings of sentences.
A well-thought-out entity
The performance, directed by the author herself, is a strong entity in which different art forms are seamlessly intertwined. The pompous staging of the courts smoothly transforms into a remote area of Russia, where Armfelt is deported. With small clever changes, you also wander from court to court.
A large proportion of dance enlivens the overall picture, creating an impressive look for the era. Music plays in the background under the direction of Carita Holmström. Holmström herself as a conductor and Mademoiselle also changes externally over time. His Renaissance cotton candy bun, messy fluff or head wrapped in a scarf can be read as the spirit of the times and the atmosphere of events. The rather lengthy play carries thanks to good lead roles and clever execution. It opens up a different picture of the important years of Finnish history: the official historiography is coloured with lush and grotesque strokes.
Frej Lindqvist: Armfelt – a child of his time. Translated by Reita Lounavuori. Director: Frej Lindqvist. Choreography: Aku Ahjolinna. Conductor: Carita Holmström. Set design: Ole Dikland. Costumes: Sari Salmela. Cast: Santeri Kinnunen, Oskari Katajisto, Pekka Laiho, Eeva-Liisa Haimelin, Matti Rasila, Ursula Salo, Nora Schüller, Kristiina Estelä, Jyrki Kovaleff, Reidar Palmgren, Kari Mattila, Jyrki Nousiainen and Leenamari Unho. Premiere on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre on 22.2.2001.