Review: Hissvägraren

My best friend

What kind of life story can be summed up in an hour and a half? A very lonely old man whose best friend is the elevator of an apartment building. Bengt Ahlfors’s Elevator Refrain, written for Lasse Pöysti, is a gently heartbreaking monologue with laughter bubbling on the surface.

An elderly man from Töölö lives on in his memories and imagination. Fortunately, real life is inevitable, at least in the form of elevator passengers and the postman. The encounters between reality and fiction create a hilarious tragicomedy and a chain of strange events.

The elevator refuser is not wise. It is humble to the fact of life, ageing and experiencing it in our society. The story, which Pöysti interprets sensitively, is touching: our own old age or that of our loved ones can be exactly the same.