Review: Ivanov
CHEKHOV FUN
In the City Theatre’s delightfully modern Ivanov , the protagonist gets tired of making fun of himself.
Each director has their own Chekhov, and Chekhov’s plays also seem to withstand the most diverse interpretations.
Pekka Milonoff’s highly stylised production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya was last seen in Helsinki at the KOM Theatre. At the beginning of April, Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed and adapted by Laura Jäntti for the Group Theatre, will premiere.
Between these performances, it is definitely worth going to see Ivanov, directed by the Hungarian Chekhov expert Tamás Ascher, on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre.
Ascher has moved his Ivanov lightly uninhibited to around the mid-1900s. Instead of a lace villa in Koivikko, we are in a space similar to an empty office building. American and Italian dance music of that era plays in the background.
In a delightful way, the protagonist of the modern performance, Ivanov, is tragic and funny at the same time. His agony of existence is so deep that he himself can no longer help but mock himself. It hurts. She could still endure everything else, her spouse’s deathly illness and the constant lack of money, but not her own ridicule towards herself.
Ivanov looks his miserable self in the eye and realizes that he has become not only angry and irritable, but also a complete insignificance, even though a year ago he was still healthy and alert. What is mine? Ivanov asks his tired self.
Ivanov has turned into Hamlet and is ashamed of it. He also feels bottomless guilt for his constant whining and complaining.
Others are just amused anymore. After all, no one has the energy to take seriously a misanthrope who revolves around their own navel in the long run.
Rauno Ahonen is the Ivanov of the performance. The last time I saw Ahonen was in the lead role in Juha Siltanen’s play Huora at Teatteri Takomo, and he was chillingly good at it. As Ivanov, he continues with the same line of precise interpreter.
The whole working group succeeds great. Here are some names from the top of the group of more than twenty actors: Jonna Järnefelt, Tom Wentzel, Pertti Sveholm, Leena Uotila, Pihla Penttinen, Riitta Havukainen, Jari Pehkonen, Eppu Salminen…
Tamás Ascher is one of Hungary’s most renowned directors. She also works as a guest director in different parts of Europe. Ivanov is Ascher’s sixth film in Finland. The last time he directed the Hungarian Ferenc Molnár’s Liliom was in 2004 at the Helsinki City Theatre.
Ivanov (1887), translated into Finnish by Esa Adrian, is Anton Chekhov’s first full-length play.