Review: De rättfärdiga

Prepared to die for his cause

When faith burns in your eyes and the good thing takes precedence over everything else. When good will is transformed and violence is justified. The theme on Lillan’s stage is both steaming current and timelessly existential.

How does goodwill turn into blind, bloodthirsty revenge? The question is posed by the French Nobel laureate Albert Camus in his play The Righteous (1949), a philosophical drama based on real events.
It is the story of five Russian socialists who, in the name of revolution, assassinate Grand Duke Sergei Romanov in Moscow in 1905. The five young people are driven by a desire to do something good for the oppressed Russian people.
When people take the step from thought to action, everything changes. Then you pass a point after which there is no turning back,” says director Aleksis Meaney in Lillan’s presentation of the play. And: “Terrorism has always been motivated by the will of the oppressed people. And therefore it is always righteous in the eyes of the terrorist himself.”

Then and now

The presentation also highlights that today there is most talk about Islamist terrorism, but not so long ago, Europe was bleeding from acts of violence from the IRA, ETA and RAF – everyone saw their struggle as just.
It is pointed out that Finland’s history is not innocent either: Eugen Schaumann, who assassinated Governor-General Bobrikoff, meets all the criteria for a terrorist, but in Finland he is a national hero.
The drama takes place at the beginning of the last century, but the set design, costumes and language are fixed in the present.

Functional whole

At first, the four young men, leader Boria (Pekka Strang), Janek (Sampo Sarkola), Alexis (Peter Ahlqvist) and Stepan (Peter Kanerva), seem quite similar. Only Dora (Nina Hukkinen) deviates as a woman among the lanky young men with a glowing ideology in their eyes.
But the differences in personality, and not least in experience, motives and views on the justification of violence, become clearer as the dialogue progresses. The poet Janek is passionate, while Stepanov, who has lived through the atrocities of the prison camp, is cold and vindictive. Fear, doubt, moral ruminations and even a lot of humanity are attributed to the terrorists.
The philosophical conversation is well anchored in the plot and it is accompanied by tension.

Not asking for mercy

The conversations about love, God, the importance of loyalty and liberation in death that take place in the second half between the Grand Duchess and Janek, I personally had less use of, perhaps because there is a certain saturation in terms of philosophical questions.
That’s not to say that the piece would lose its resilience in the second half, not at all. It is very strong both in terms of acting performance and visual expression. In addition, it culminates in the questions of being loyal to oneself and one’s fellow fighters to the last, not asking for mercy, dying for one’s cause. Become a hero?
With today’s perspective on terrorism – and the animalizing impact of war and violence – I am struck by the thought that it is extremely hopeful whether the questions are asked at all in real life, whether they are Islamists or specially trained military terrorist networks. You have the feeling that even the questions are not alive.

Visually strong

The Righteous in Lillan’s version is a well-functioning whole, both in terms of content and visuals. Set designer Alisha Davidow should have a special mention.
Talking faces come into their own as enlarged stills and also as film on the stage wall, a successful approach. Not least Sampo Sarkola’s delicate expression and the suggestiveness of Janek’s and leader Boria’s journey to the last task remain in the memory.
In this way, the play becomes more than an interesting philosophical conversation.