Review: Aurinko ja minä
THE SUN AND ME IS A THEATRE DELICACY
At the premiere on 17 April, the audience of the Sun and Me performance stood up at the end of the performance and shouted bravo, theatre director Sarkola hurried to hand Kyllikki Forssell a magnificent bouquet of flowers with an elegant hand kiss. This is how the Diva is worshipped.
The worship was right. The Sun and Me is a delightful theatre treat.
Kyllikki Forssell, if anyone can play the aging Sarah Bernhardt, a diva in another power!
Santeri Kinnunen is an excellent secretary, Georges Pitou, who already knows that nothing will come of the second part of Bernhardt’s memoirs, but who knows how to go along with the old woman without offending her. Kinnunen’s Pitou is not a slave of Bernhardt. In fact, he is often stronger than his mistress. Without him, the star would drown forever in the senile jumble of his memories.
Author John Murrell has set the play to take place in 1922, when Sarah Bernhardt was living her last summer.
In reality, only secretary Pitou was involved, but that is secondary.
The relationship between an old woman and a middle-aged man is not without erotic charge. Sarah has an eternal sexual attraction, which is not a threat but a source of warmth for Pitou, who is afraid of women.
Forssell’s and Kinnunen’s chemistry meets wonderfully. You don’t see that kind of thing on stage every day.
The Sun Dies
like Sarah
The Sun and Me is not a hit comedy like The Quartet. It often turns to tragedy. An old woman fights for the brightness of her mind. He knows that he will soon die, but he also knows that the sun will die too. It may take a couple of billion years, but it will die, as will Sarah Bernhardt. It’s a consolation, after all.
Comedy is seen in the confusing process of writing memoirs. Pitou is forced to portray people who are important to Sarah. Sarah doesn’t just want to dictate her memoirs, she wants to act them out.
When Pitou is allowed to perform, among other things: Sarah’s mother, she gets into her element. He can criticize Sarah with all his might, just as her courtesan mother did.
Pitou is giggling, he doesn’t want to act, but deep down he loves it.
It’s also wonderful to play the horrible, money-hungry manager Jarrel, with whom Sarah toured America. Of course, Jarrel didn’t skin Sarah financially. Sarah knew her worth and knew how to count. She was a rich lady.
However, Pitou is unable to play Sarah’s reckless husband, Jacques Damala, a Greek diplomat who was not only a drug addict but also a debauchery, who, according to the gossip magazines of the time, included both Casanova and the Marquis de Sade.
Pitou cannot portray such a disgusting person. He made Sarah’s life hell, at least for as long as Sarah endured him. Still, Sarah loved Jacques for the rest of her life.
Cast
above all
The Sun and Me is clear old-fashioned theatre where the actors mean everything. Mediocre talents don’t present this. The director’s job is to hold the big picture in his hands, and that’s what Milko Lehto has done.
Elina Kolehmainen’s set design is reminiscent of the Riviera, even though Sarah Bernhardt’s summer residence was located in Brittany. In any case, the blazing heat of the time of the story comes to the fore.
The play The Sun and Me was supposed to premiere in the autumn of last year, but Kyllikki Forssell injured her leg. I wonder if Sarah’s ghost was involved in the case, as her leg was amputated after a stage accident. The prosthetic leg did not stop Bernhardt from acting.
Maybe Forssell’s leg is still a bit annoying, but Sarah had that prosthesis.
The Sun and Me is sold out for the spring season and months ahead. However, it is always worth asking for cancellation locations.