Review: Manillaköysi

THE MANILA ROPE BINDS THE VIEWER’S INTEREST


Many middle-aged people are probably familiar with this book list: Kalevala, The Unknown Soldier, Pearl, The Red Pony, Lord of the Flies and Manilla Rope. So yes, middle school and mother tongue lessons. And for many, the latter could remain quite indigestible when the reader’s age was 14 and the rapi on top.
Things are different now, when there is – fortunately – more age and understanding. Lauri Siparin Manilla Rope , dramatised for the Helsinki City Theatre, is great theatre.
In Sipari’s version, we also see the writer and his friend Tuomas Anhava on stage, who fruitfully and passionately discuss the deepest essence of writing on the crest of the wave of modernism in the 50s. Väinö Linna’s main work also gets a part in the discussion.

Meri’s text lives on caricatures. And from the point of view of acting, the City Theatre has a man who is just right for these caricatures: Jari Pehkonen’s mad lieutenant who disciplines the mentally ill and the feminine railway clerk who admires German soldiers, as well as the character of the passionate writer Anhava, are extremely constructed epitomes of the hustlers, whom the viewer, if not outright fall in love, at least like.
The stage design is a soldier-like grey-yellow, but this also has a purpose: even Joose Keppilä’s journey towards the destruction of the burden is grey. The man is completely speechless, which is of course due to the tight squeeze, but also to the typically Finnish perseverance.

Anyone who has read Manilla Rope will remember that the narrative of the book consists of stories and flashbacks. Joose Keppilä’s tug-of-war is passed on through the storyteller. On stage, Keppilä’s odyssey is only a subplot, and it is the nested stories that have been brought out skilfully and with respect for the academician-author’s text.
The general theme of the work, the somewhat absurd nature of human wandering and the squeaky framework set for it by the environment, should be presented precisely in these stories.
The Manilla Rope at the Helsinki City Theatre could be my teaching as a native language teacher. The references to the history and landmarks of Finnish literature in the stage adaptation are elegantly displayed and woven into the plot rope.
The performance does justice to the original text, but nevertheless creates an independent work of art that can also be enjoyed to follow.