Review: Miksi naiset aina rakastuvat Ernestiin
Idle class
does not compromise on its achieved benefits
If someone comes to me and says that The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde 112 years ago, is one of the funniest comedies of all time, I won’t object. After all, it has the essential ingredients in one package: farce tuned to a good pace, satire that mocks the ruthless people and witty verbal comedy. All you need is a director who masters the genres of comedy, a skilled translator and actors dedicated to precision…
Lilla Teatern’s ensemble has found those capabilities and the result is a joyful two-hour performance.
It may be that last year, when Wilde’s Pill of Joy was made in Lillan in Swedish, things were even more flexible. Now that the performance language is the second Finnish language for most actors, fast replication and articulation are sometimes in demand. Or it was, at the premiere a week and a half ago; Now the tongue is probably already in the middle of the mouth at the right time and alternately in both cheeks.
A winding road
to women’s hearts
Oscar Wilde did not spare much in mocking the customs of the English upper class. The privileged who have dedicated their lives to idleness are ridiculed, but even at the risk of doing so, they cling to the advantages they have gained, such as the happiness of doing nothing.
In the play, the young apostles of hedonism, John Worthing and Algernon Moncriff, who splash into the lira due to their excessive wit, both try to collect extra style and pity points with the help of Earnest, which was invented in the eyes of their crushes. At first, they succeed quite well in their games, but of course there are bumps in the road. Soon they will be so big that the road to women’s hearts will not be a parade march. John’s strong-willed relative, Lady Bracknell, is a bad guy, and a throwaway from a clergyman or a governess who goes around a bit is not at all helpful in making the gentlemen’s love dreams come true.
What about the objects of dreams? Cecily Cardhew is a bit of a bimbomb (the tough part of the blonde!) as a Rus dancer, while the dark Gwendolen Fairfax looks at the world from a slightly more skeptical angle. But the goal, the loveliness of the wonderful, non-existent Ernest, blinds both alike.
Accurate
Typing
Neil Hardwick has visibly enjoyed the Wilde team. This is particularly evident in the smooth continuum of stage events with different tempos. At no point does the performance stop or run away too much. Hardwick has added a couple of his own signatures, such as Nordic walking and the diaries of a Finnish “bride”. Amusing, not disturbing.
The apple doesn’t seem to have strayed far from the tree when you listen to the Finnish translation of the play. Sam Hardwick’s text is a smooth language, and in this father-son pair, theaters will be offered a radar pair in the future.
Lillan’s actors get to shine – quite literally in the costumes designed by Kirsi Kasnio . The accuracy required by the text is on point, the typification always stays in the grey area between relevant exaggeration and credibility.
Sampo Sarkola, who plays Algernon excellently, has probably also inherited the skill of comedic timing from his father, while Pekka Strang makes John’s character enchantingly self-sufficient.
Birgitta Ulfsson, the grand old lady of demanding comedy, is very much at home with her younger colleagues. And the younger ladies: Edith Holmström (Cecily) and Armi Toivanen (Gwendolen) are just as lovely as they should be. So it’s completely pointless to ask why all the “Ernests” always fall in love with such women.