Review: Täydellinen persikka

BITING PEACH

Ferene Molnár’s (1878-1952) play The Perfect Peach, which premiered on the main stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, is a comedy depicting the social life of the 1930s, with an intellectual and cynically biting humour. The play has previously been performed in Finland under the name Juhlat linnassa.

The events begin when playwright Sándor Turai (Asko Sarkola) and his colleague Mansky (Eero Saarinen) arrive at a luxurious hotel with their protégé, composer genius Albert Adam (Pekka Strang). The composer’s fiancée Ilona (Vappu Nalbantoglu) and her lover Almády (Carl-Kristian Rundman) are also present. The end result is a titillating jealousy farce.

What makes the play interesting is its postmodernist, self-aware structure. In this, Molnár has been ahead of his time, as the play has not been modernized, but is performed in its original form.

In the opening scene, the playwrights think about how the play should be started and how its characters could best be introduced to the audience. They end up with the simple solution that each person takes turns introducing themselves directly to the audience. And this is what is done.

Turai and Mansky view writing as technical work and want to save their composer protégé from heartache, primarily to secure the box office success of their future plays. Molnár has anticipated the coming time here as well.

At the end of the first act, we see three different versions of how to end the first act correctly. The composer, who has been broken by lovesickness, thinks that it should end with the composer’s suicide. However, playwrights do not think that such a melodramatic scene would work. Mansky, on the other hand, offers a rather pathetic solution, stating that it is only love sorrows that turn a boy into a man.

In the end, we end up with a familiar and safe dramaturgical solution: a plot hook that leaves the next twist open.

In addition, there is a play within a play on stage, and Almády has to repeat on stage several times that he is a tailspinner. Rundman’s performance as an aging ladies’ man who spits out long French names like cherry stones is hilarious. Sarkola is also excellent as a sarcastic playwright.

The Perfect Peach is a play that makes you laugh genuinely and without artificial trickery. Ferene Molnár’s text has stood the test of time and has remained fresh – like a peach.