Review: Ihmisen osa

Kari Hotakainen’s novel The Human Part is an excellent, even philosophical tragicomedy. The spirit of the novel has been preserved and strongly revived.

Salme Malmikunnas sells her life story to an unemployed writer and tells it in such a way that nothing and no one will be left as a supporting actor in her life.

Hotakainen’s text is a fair and honest thought about the modern world. The viewer is a taking party in a strong story and life, in the tragic and at the same time comical story of the button salesman.

Every event and thing is familiar to us, even if not personally experienced, it is easy to see them summarized and presented by others. Crying and laughter are on the surface at the same time.

The husband’s inability to speak, the death of a grandchild, unemployment, lack of money, the oddities of working life are on stage, real and spiced up to such an extent that the impact is great and handsome. Things as diverse as homelessness, wealth and indifference are as tragic as they happen to you. The wealthy seem to have at least as much to think about how not to be and not seen as the have-nots to be visible.

Even in her retirement, Ritva Valkama plays a spectacularly rewarding role, only she can be Salme Malmikunnas. Sanna-Kaisa Palo’s strength is tragic, even frighteningly genuine, and at the same time she puts working life in place in a comical way.
Everything is in place in Leena Uotila’s cavalcade of roles. Armi Toivanen’s small but all the more colourful role work is wonderful and sporty.

There is room for people on stage, as the title of the play suggests. The set design is the background and gives each role space to show the importance of its own moment.
There is nothing bad to say about this, everything is in place as it always is in a masterpiece.