Review: Geneve

PASI LAMPELA’S BITING CONTEMPORARY THEATRE

Helsinki City Theatre’s Geneva is also suitable for those outside the social crisis

When watching Pasi Lampela’s new play, the first thing that comes to mind is that we, the viewers of contemporary theatre as well as today’s theatre makers, should be grateful for Jouko Turkka’s uncompromising attitude both as a director and as a trainer.
Turkka was the director and deputy director of the Helsinki City Theatre at the turn of the 1970s and 80s, and then led the Theatre Academy for a decade as a professor and rector. That strong vision of theatre produces top theatre similar to that of Geneva , where the main things are an appealing, important, social text and the theatrical style in which the text is illustrated for the stage.
Geneva takes place in the grand hall of self-centered bullying, which, however, is built on the stage in a very suggestive way with an entrance backdrop and three almost imperceptible glass tabletops. When the lady of the gymnasium offers coffee to the guest, she swings a single cup from behind the side wall without a saucer and a spoon.
So all the attention is focused on the acting’s work and the thing that is meant to be told. The pupils of Turkka School – today’s leading actors in our country – have not been pouring sweat and snot, freezing in the snow, shouting their voices into the field for nothing. Now the transition from one state of mind to another goes by touching the bones and marrow, to the extreme. Pekka Laiho of the more experienced generation copes with the tough job just as well – perhaps best of the whole close-knit team!

Exciting opening

The play tells the story of the economic frenzy of the late 90s, many of whom lost everything during the recession: property, family, friends, health.
Investment speculator Henrik Rotko (Carl-Kristian Rundman) has fled a humiliating trial with his wife Anna (>B>Merja Larivaara) and disturbed teenage daughter (Pihla Penttinen) to Geneva, Switzerland. There are millions involved, which have then been used to make even more.
Henrik’s mentor Jaakko (Pekka Laiho) arrives to meet the couple after a 15-year break. It turns out that Jaakko has filed a police report against Henrik in connection with the mess. The case has been pending for more than a decade, and now Henrik has been acquitted. It also appears that Anna and Jaakko had been dating in mixed situations until Henrik rescued her to safety.
Henrik’s cashier Pekka (Eppu Salminen) will also celebrate his acquittal with his wife Tiina (Ursula Salo), who goes to booze.
During one night full of cognac and vodka, there is a tough showdown over both company collapses and relationships. The story has many predictable twists and turns, such as Anna and Jaakko’s relationship and continued affection, Pekka’s longing to return to Finland, Henrik and Tiina’s secret affair, or finally the daughter’s real father – which the viewer immediately begins to suspect as Anna’s relationships with men slowly become clear.

All for yourself

Lampela writes the story in an exciting way, unravelling new ingredients. There is a lot left for the viewer to decide. However, what is new – and best – in the text is the revelation of these miserable human destinies from the inside. How on earth could the people of Finland so completely forget that they were raised by the welfare state!
Social responsibility and some kind of moderation used to be self-evident. But it was these people who became intoxicated to want everything for themselves and only for themselves. Then we don’t think about paying taxes or education and health care. Until the end, only for myself. And a lot.
Somehow, however, Lampela does not magically blame anyone directly. Geneva will not be watched by those who have started a selfish game in the last 15-20 years. You can’t go to the theatre from prison or mental hospital. People do not dare to come to Finland from tax havens. The speculators who are still operating among us choose the surface musical as their venue and improve their conscience by paying for the staff of their companies for lifeless stadium concerts.
On the other hand, for the rest of us, ordinary taxpayers living on wages, Geneva is an important reminder that we will not get carried away in the future either. To paraphrase the Unknown Soldier: protect us from insensitive politicians, so that they will never promise us an easy future again, as long as we forget our fellow human beings and our solidarity as members of the nation.