Review: Ihmisen osa
The role of a person is that of another
Helsinki City Theatre 24.2. Stage adaptation by Raila Leppäkoski. One of the current trends in theatre is the adaptation of current best-selling novels to the stage at a rapid pace. Readers of the book are almost invariably disappointed: the reader’s imagination is surprisingly difficult to surpass.
In the role of a man at the Helsinki City Theatre, such a rare thing happens that you almost forget that you are watching a play based on a book.
Raila Leppäkoski’s understated stage adaptation is exceptionally functional, downright bull’s-eye. It acknowledges the characteristic of Kari Hotakainen’s ruggedly beautiful novel, but does not remain a prisoner of it. It even manages to increase the appeal of the novel’s gallery of characters.
No wonder the premiere audience screamed bravo after the play ended.
When empathy disappeared
The advance advertising of the human part has largely been built on Ritva Valkama. Valkama, who exudes warm charisma, is in a class of his own as the play’s lively yarn merchant embellished by everyday life. He decides to sell his truth of life to a writer who is tired of his own part for a lump sum of 7,000 euros.
However, the story’s yarn merchant Salme Malmikunnas and a person’s tendency to narrate their own life are only a framework within which Hotakainen can get to grips with the essential, the human being.
According to Hotakainen, there are mainly two things that make homo sapiens human: imagination and concentration. With their help, we can put ourselves in another person’s shoes for a moment, imagine, for example, what it feels like to stand in a bread line, to come as a “wrong-coloured” immigrant to a hostile, cold country, or to see our children suffer.
The Western market economy seems to have lost its understanding of the human role: empathy, justice and the pursuit of well-being do not seem to fit into the same picture.
In the case of the Salme Malmikunnas family, the claim slowly escalates towards the infamous real-life Audi man ( Kari-Pekka Toivonen in the play), who kills a little girl with his junk car at a pedestrian crossing and demands a mention of his car’s sports equipment in the police report.
Balanced control
Raila Leppäkoski’s balanced directing flows effortlessly on an almost bare revolving stage. During the first act, it seems that Leppäkoski has reduced Hotakainen’s rich textual tapestry to a fairly ordinary and harmless tragicomedy. It has its funny moments and occasional excesses.
The second act proves otherwise. The comic emphases fade into the background, and Hotakainen’s accurate portrayal of humanity comes to the fore.
The drama retains its interest, as the characters or situations are not explained.
We get to decide for ourselves why telemarketer Maija (charmingly whimsical Armi Toivanen) starts stealing and turns her whole life into a laconic joke. Or why Pekka (suitably exaggerated Jaakko Saariluoma) falls into the gutter.
Or why successful management consultant Helena ( Sanna-Kaisa Palo, who seems genuinely anxious) collapses.
The conditions for interpretation are provided, but they are not imposed.
Compared to the book, only the seemingly effortless ability of bus driver Biko (Aslak Mamadou) to commit violence remains poorly grounded.
Leena Uotila and Teemu Palosaari both play a bunch of partly comical supporting roles, which play an important role in mirroring and exacerbating the main characters’ mental states. Shared resentments – melancholy, mastery of words and forced humiliation in the face of life – also come to the fore in them.