Review: Viimeinen sikari

– –

Even domesticated birds sometimes fly

The Last Cigar is a charmingly unconventional play about aging

Charlotte Estman-Wennström

Ragnar (Lasse Pöysti, left), Anneli (Tea Ista) and Helge (Mauri Heikkilä) age passionately in Bengt Ahlfors’ play The Last Cigar.

What could be sweeter than a couple who have been married for 40 years. The edges have been polished, the self has turned into a common will. Now we are celebrating our leisurely retirement days and enjoying the achievements of our life together.
You might think so, but that’s not the case, at least if Bengt Ahlfors is to be believed. Ahlfors’ The Last Cigar, written for the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, is exactly what this time needs: a performance that sweetly demolishes senior stereotypes and depicts people as human beings, regardless of their age.
At least I was somewhat sold in front of the performance. The last cigar is probably good for every thirty-year-old who thinks they know what people are like as they get older.

A cigar kills, life doesn’t

The main couple of the play are retired principal Ragnar (Lasse Pöysti) and former librarian Anneli (Tea Ista). Ragnar’s vices are fancy cigars and the occasional whiskey bottle, which Anneli can’t stand, of course.
Alcohol and cigars are deadly, even doctors say so. On the other hand, is life without passions a life at all? The “baboon cage” of the small town is distressing in other ways as well, but luckily there is a vicar Helge (Mauri Heikkilä), a loyal old friend to whom Ragnar can lighten his heart.
It’s not really worth revealing more about the plot, but you can play with the riddles. According to Elmer Diktonius, only domesticated birds feel longing, as wild birds are used to flying. Martin Luther played with the same metaphor: let the birds fly, as long as they don’t make a nest over my head.
Ragnar and Helge move between these two extremes. But which one will the passions ultimately win? And whose trajectory will take you dangerously close to the sun?

A mix of genres

In terms of genres, The Last Cigar is quite a chameleon. Ahlfors skilfully navigates his unconventional narrative on the interfaces of drama, comedy and farce, but does not completely surrender to any genre.
The element of surprise is one of the greatest assets of the text. What at first looks like a light-hearted comedy turns into serious drama in the next act. And what looks like a drama is – well, life, in all its banal brutality. In films, this could be called a drama-comedy.
The ending turns downright philosophical when Ragnar, who has cancer, says that he lives three weeks away from death. Of course, the future deceased is granted certain exemptions, at least the last cigar now.

Apollo and Dionysus

Ahlfors’ direction proceeds calmly, respecting the text and the rock-solid acting. Ahlfors has said that he wrote the role of Ragnar specifically with Pöysti in mind.
Pöysti is so effortlessly so natural as Ragnari that the role of the secretive and rogue-like principal begins to look like the alter ego of a veteran actor. As the plot thickens, Pöysti is able to show that he has mastered not only Apollonian serenity but also the manifestation of the Dionysian side of the human mind.
The passionate and fierce Dionysus is also an old acquaintance of Mauri Heikkilä’s Helge, whose public life as a small-town clergyman has forced him into an outward calm. But as we know, there are dark spots at the bottom of even the clearest lake.

Double life

Tea Ista also lives a believable double life as Anneli. One of the rules of the game is that the exterior of a cultured and strong homemaker does not reveal even a shred of the passions that are swirling inside.
Leenamari Unho’s Monika is Helge’s daughter, a photographer whose career and marriage are on hold. Monika’s main task is to act as a mirror to an era when the “I will” said in front of a priest was still a sign of lifelong commitment, no matter the cost.
The dramaturgy is nicely boosted by Antero Mansikka’s small-minded soundscape: by the beginning of the last act, the Summer Hymn has been replaced by the rumble of thunder. Now we are expecting a Dionysian storm, not a light summer rain.

The Last Cigar (Den sista cigarren). Press premiere of the premiere of the Helsinki City Theatre’s Small Stage 5.5. Written and directed by Bengt Ahlfors. Translated by Lasse Pöysti. Set design: Erik Salvesen. Costumes: Sari Salmela. Lights: Juhani Leppänen. Sound: Antero Mansikka. Cast: Lasse Pöysti, Tea Ista, Mauri Heikkilä, Leenamari Unh