Review: Svartsjuka

BITTERSWEET TASTE OF JEALOUSY

When jealousy knocks on the door, the world around us usually falls
together. Jealousy is a phenomenon most of us have experienced and it usually
Associated with everything from unbridled emotional storms to murder and God knows
what.
At Lilla Teatern, jealousy is rampant under Raila Leppäkoski’sdirection, partly
as an emotional state, and partly as a driving force from the perspective of three women in the
The bitter satire Jealousy by the German-Argentine writer Esther
Vilar, known for the controversial book The Dressed Man (1971).
The play had its world premiere in 2001 in Paris, while the performance at Lilla
The theatre had its Finnish premiere.


Struggle in monologue form

The main characters love all the same, in the play completely absent
middle-aged little fat man, and the performance is in that sense
It is unusual for the trio to never meet but to communicate – or really too
separate monologues – with each other by fax, in their homes on different floors
in a large housing complex somewhere in a major European city.
The action is set in a sterile, bare room with a sofa, table and
Large panoramic window. Here, the rug is initially pulled under the feet of the
the 55-year-old star lawyer Helen (Leena Uotila) when she learns that
the 40-year-old successful architect Yana (Jonna Järnefelt)
seize her husband and demand a divorce. Soon Helen will have arranged
with a hidden vantage point over her husband’s and Yana’s love nest and is not
then to comment on their sexual games for the rival to say the least
sarcastic words.
The first act is one long naval battle out on the storm of jealousy
sea. Veritable broadsides of sarcasm fly through the air and here are
even Yana the winning party.
In the second act, the constellations are turned upside down and give the play new life.
The husband has abandoned his first oblique jump for the young 25-year-old
student, yoga teacher and Buddhist Iris (Cecilia Paul). Her
Buddhist theses that human suffering ends when you stop
At first, longing drives the rivals to the brink of madness, but soon
she herself has bitterly eaten up what she has said and in the end the circle is
closed again. In the background, suitable melodic loops fade out of the
tango Jalousie in Iiro Rantala’sdelicious piano interpretations.


Unique concentrate


Jealousy is a clever, biting and entertaining satire with serious
undertones of a jealousy that is inherited from the play’s oldest to
youngest – a jealousy that corrupts, humiliates but also becomes a drug
You can’t do without.
Jealousy is also a play in which the actors get
play the whole register as the despised wife, the
deceived mistress and the innocent rival. In other words, a
excellent opportunity to see Leena Uotila’s, Jonna Järnefelt’sand Cecilia’s
Paul’scraftsmanship in a unique concentrate.
If the play is primarily written from a women’s perspective, with great
recognition factor, preferably among middle-aged ladies, it also provides
us men a healthy eye-opener about what we are and what we could be.
Because once jealousy invites you to dance, the choreography is the
The same for all of us. No matter how we take out the steps, we are still just as ridiculous and
equally vulnerable.