Review: Matkalla Porkkalaan

THE POLITICAL GAME
ABOUT IVAN BELOV

Matkalla Porkkalaan , with lyrics by Sami Keski-Vähälä and directed by Milko Lehto on the small stage of the City Theatre, looks like a real bush on the surface, pouring in clichés about vodka-drinking Russians, the Control Commission at Torni, Finnish soldiers in war and our government during the armistice. But under the surface there are ironic hints.

The starting point for the historical-documentary, fact-fiction-based play is Risto Niku’s book Kuka ampui kapteeni Ivan Belovin? (2003), in which the writer thoroughly investigated what really happened when Ivan Belov, a captain in the Russian navy, was shot dead under shady circumstances on the Lauttasaari bridge on November 3, 1944. Belov was on his way to Porkkala on a hay cart with a Russian column.

Sami Keski-Vähälä, who earlier this year wrote The Fake Bride at the Helsinki City Theatre, has been inspired by Niku’s book about the unsolved murder and has written the new play, which, in Milko Lehto’s very parodic form of direction, also gives subtextual and other hints about the later Finlandized Soviet policy.

Conspiracy theories are flowing and national security is in danger. Now the Russians themselves are under suspicion, now the Communist Party of Finland or the Civil Guard. All the high-ranking animals of the time are featured in the play, from the Prime Minister of Finland Castrén (Aarno Sulkanen ) to the Soviet Control Commission at Torni headed by Andrei Zyadnov (Antti Litja ). In addition, the young Kekkonen appears in a portrait-like interpretation of Matti Olavi Ranin. All actors on both the Finnish and Soviet sides are portrayed in an extremely disrespectful comic, anarchist, ironic and burlesque puppet. In this way, the performance grows from its historical-documentary framework into a satirical commentary on a complex political and personal chess game in which people are movable and interchangeable pawns.

Most of the performance takes place at Torni, where the Allied (Soviet) Control Commission is held in a carnivalesque atmosphere. Ladies, who were considered double agents, are also part of the company, including Miss Rosenberg (Riitta Havukainen), a singing actress from the Swedish Theatre.

During the course of the performance and the murder investigation, the poor officer Räsänen (Ilkka Heiskanen) is pointed out as the culprit in the drama and is forced to stand up for “the best of Finland”. Antti Litja makes a hilariously moody Zhdanov with Hitler attributes. Lilla Teatern’s Joachim Wigelius appears a few times as Ivan Belov but is mostly Zhadnov’s closest man, Savonenkov. And here Wigelius really goes all out to make Savonenkov a clown-like nerd. Santeri Kinnunen is a meticulous investigator for the Finnish Security Service.

The stage space, with functional décor by Katariina Kirjavainen, is used smoothly to create both intimate spheres and larger, collective gatherings.