Review: Aurinko ja minä
Impression of the twilight of life
Our theatre’s beloved, dignified star Kyllikki Forssell gets to conquer the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre and the hearts of vulnerable viewers in the role of the great Sarah Bernhardt. And Forssell delivers on his promises. She charms not so much with grandiosity and diva gestures, but with her impressive presence and acting work refined by life experience, which does not require underlining to convey emotions and meanings.
John Murrell’s play The Sun and I , which premiered in 1977, tells the story of French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), the biggest star of her time, at the time of her resignation. The play depicts an evening and night at Bernhardt’s summer residence on the coast of Brittany, on the island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, in the last year of his life.
Flirting with death
On a sleepless night, Sarah frantically works on the second part of her memoir together with her loyal secretary, Georges Pitu. The play mixes fact and fiction. The characters are historical, but the situation is imaginary.
The Sun and Me does not so much account of the legendary actor’s life as it deals with immortality and renunciation on a universal human level. Anecdotes from Bernhardt’s life emerge as the diva recalls the turning points in her life, great victories and deceased lovers.
The performance, delicately directed by Milko Lehto, is theatre wrapped in dignity and trusting in the charisma of the actors. Forssell is fully up to the task and masters the many levels that are created in the play through his own career. He fearlessly brings out the weakness of a woman living with her amputated leg as well as the eroticism of a piece of it with a dim flame.
Forssell flirts with death and his audience in his role. The sun and the diva, it is equally difficult for both to give up their immortality. Bernhardt and Forssell have given their all to the audience.
Mutual play
To refresh her memory and amuse herself, Sarah forces her secretary to play characters from her life. Pitou, played by Santeri Kinnunen , reluctantly, but with enthusiasm and enjoyment, is inclined to play Sarah’s mother, producer and Oscar Wilde.
Kinnunen skillfully physicalizes Pitou’s peculiar character. The comic tone of the role of Pitou brings life to the performance, but at the same time makes the relationship between the hostess and the faithful servant safer. The wounds hidden under the thick skin of the grip are hidden under a precisely constructed role. In other respects, too, the play’s most tragic colours have been softened and the corners polished.
Despite its serenity, the play, which is based on a dialogue between two people and a relationship marked by habit and coloured by different roles, is not static. The mutual play between Forssell’s life-savvy diva who hangs on the fringes of life and Kinnunen’s flexibly played Pitou keeps the intensity of the performance up.
The stage image, set and costumed by Elina Kolehmainen in a romantically nostalgic way, does not change, and the situation does not develop or change. The Sun and Me is not so much a drama as it is a depiction of the moment, a vivid and beautiful impression of the twilight of life.