Review: Mies joka kieltäytyi käyttämästä hissiä

Lasse Pöysti is the grand old man of theatre

A LONELY PERSON’S ONLY FRIEND IS THE ELEVATOR

Bengt Ahlfors’s The Man Who Refused to Use the Elevator – a play written for Lasse Pöysti tells the story of the loneliness of an aging man and the elevator of an apartment building in Töölö. The paradox is that people are lonelier in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city than anywhere else. The play, which was a success in Swedish, will now be seen in a Finnish version on the stage of Lilla Teatern.
The performance is at the same time hilarious and tearfully sad. The play is about the ultimate and existentialist loneliness of man, which is comforted by absurd encounters in everyday life. Small and mundane details are smoothly cultivated into existentialist reflections. Lasse Pöysti is alone on stage from start to finish, but the intensity of his stage charisma does not wane for a moment.

Existence is remembering

The self-conscious structure of the play underlines the fact that it is a performance. At times, Pöysti talks to the audience and ponders, among other things, the essence of the monologue: A monologue also requires a listener, an audience to whom it is directed.
After the death of his dog, the old man in the play has talked to his only friend, Enoch the elevator. After the death of the man’s mother, the elevator is the only thing that connects the present and childhood. However, her relationship with the elevator is put to the test after the doctor orders that she must walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator.
The monologue flows smoothly to childhood and back. The man in the play still hasn’t forgotten the blind kittens that his aunt’s husband threw to death against a rock. He wonders what the significance of an existence that ends violently before it has even properly begun. When he is gone, no one would remember the kittens that died a brutal death 70 years ago.
Existence is about being noticed and having someone who remembers. The hardest thing about loneliness seems to be the lack of that someone.

Encounters at the mailbox

In addition to the elevator, there is another important point of reference in the man’s life; actress Grace Kelly, who was even born on the same day as the man in the play. On the day of Grace Kelly’s death, he always buys roses and remembers his idol, which eventually leads him to a strange situation.
Our time is well illustrated by the fact that it is easier to establish a relationship with a movie star than with a neighbor. The movie star is like the old and faithful elevator of the house – it steadfastly reflects back exactly what you want to see in it. The man says that he once typed Grace Kelly’s name into an internet search engine. The result was thousands and thousands of references. He thinks that so many people will still remember Kelly after she died, but will there be any memory of the lonely man?
On the other hand, social expectations, a kind of supervising Other, guide a man’s behaviour even in the loneliness of an apartment building, such as in an encounter with a postman through a mailbox. The man does not want to disappoint the postman with the assumptions he has imagined and makes a lot of effort to cherish the morning encounter at the mailbox.
The third important second in the play The Elevator and Grace Kelly is a young girl who calls herself Diana and meets a man in shady circumstances. Diana doesn’t respond to the man’s monologue either, but remains silent, but listens fluently.
The man ponders the randomness of life, but is also led by improbable coincidences. Eventually, the man’s loneliness is relieved in a surprising way.