Review: Kaksi maailmaa
Two Worlds
This season, the Helsinki City Theatre has invested in important, topical and mind-boggling topics with its two plays. One play focuses on the growth of an ordinary boy to be the perpetrator of a bomb attack, and the other plays focuses on the life of a young woman in the hell of a closed religious community.
Where one play fails, the other play succeeds exceptionally well.
At the premiere on 9 November, almost one hundred percent of the audience sat in the audience.
And another thing that can be almost certain is that the central role, ROSANNA KEMPPI, played one of the roles of her life as Sara Laakso, who strives for a life from a religious community.
With her role as Sara, Rosanna Kemppi redeemed her place as one of the young talents from whom I look forward to more roles. Rosanna shone already in 2008 in the Theatre School’s play “Bunny Girl” and now she has refined herself from a schoolchild to an actress in earnest.
During the intermission and after the show ended, I listened to the comments of my fellow spectators. You could also hear comments that the message had been heavy for them.
Of course, the reception is very personal and the feelings arise from the connection to the viewer’s personality.
Since I’m a deep water wader myself, I didn’t feel that the play “TWO WORLDS” was by any means difficult, even though it tears the soul deeply.
The text, which contains small lightening jokes of humour, always lifted the viewer up from the worst emotional pits.
The story and its narration are so genuine that it was easy to dive into ecstasy, get anxious about spiritual harassment, feel understanding and empathy for the characters, and experience the events on stage as real, genuine and directed at oneself.
At times, it was difficult to sit in his chair calmly watching what was happening on stage: I wanted to cry and scream with Sara and her friend Teea, I wanted to get up and scream out my opinion.
So the play had a really deep impact on me.
The basic story of the play “TWO WORLDS” is real life for many.
However, many of us have followed similar events at least from the sidelines, and everyone has at least become acquainted with them through the media and books.
The actions of various religious, fanatical, isolating and captivating communities, the destruction of the lives of their members and the enormous impact of the community on the psyche of its members, is a multi-layered phenomenon that is an increasing reality in our increasingly nuanced society.
Sara Laakso is a community-bred person who has grown into a young woman in a fanatical religiosity.
However, the shell breaks, as it so easily happens at this point in life.
Sara struggles to get out of captivity.
Director MILKO LEHTO is the “midas” of the stage. His list of credits in theatre is meritorious and long for a young man born in 1970.
Of his productions for the stages of the City Theatre, I remember as holistic experiences in the past, for example, “The Eight Chosen” (2005), “On the Way to Porkkala” (2006), “Belyakov’s Winter” (2007) and “The Sun and Me” (2008)
Milko’s “Midas-ness” can be seen in the fact that as a director, he and his group are able to conjure up an impressive atmosphere on stage in every way.
Milko’s plays are not predictable in terms of their execution, and everything is tuned to the very top, down to the set and costumes.
The cast of “TWO WORLDS” was once again perfectly suited to their characters and absolutely charismatic in their roles.
Rosanna Kauppi was already a surprise that was praised for a reason in my earlier post.
Next, I’d like to mention ANNA-MAIJA TUOKO, whose role as Sara’s friend Teea was so honest and so sad that I just wanted to scream my tears at the end.
RAUNO AHONEN as Sara’s father and AINO SEPPO as Sara’s mother also showed many other sides of themselves, despite their one-eyed sectarian essence.
ILKKA FORSS as the elder of the parish even scared me. The man dived into his role in such a way that at times it felt like he was really serious.
“TWO WORLDS” is wonderfully a play in the sense that there are no weaknesses or weak links in it.
Of course, they exist in the proportions of realism, but they are so small and insignificant that they have no meaning, and the eye does not register them.
MARKKU TSOKKINEN’s set design is the best we have seen in a long time, and the stage solutions get chilling and harrowing emotional charges out of the viewer. Great job!
As if it were a set design, its living elements are a group of four women called “hunch”. ( SARI HAAPAMÄKI, HELENA HAARANEN, KIRSI KARLENIUS and TIINA PELTONEN)
They bring to life what a person thinks, feels, fears, experiences.
ELINA KEINONEN knows how to be wonderfully the still foal-like, impression-prone, group-independent young girl who blames her sister Sara, who is climbing into adulthood, with all the childlike fearful hatred that one surely feels in her situation.
JARKKO MIETTINEN, TUUKKA VASAMA, MARJUT TOIVANEN, LASSE PAJUNEN, MARKKU HUHTAMO, PEKKA HUOTARI in addition to the above, were all perfectly in place in their characters and supported the flow and growth of the story with such a presence that the play “TWO WORLDS”, directed by Milko Lehto and written by Nils Arde and Steen Bille.
The heavy role of Sara’s younger brother Aleksi Laakso is occupied by three young actors. JOE AHONEN, TOBIAS KARLENIUS and LAURI LEHTO take turns in the parts.
For once, there is also a child role on stage, which is equal to the adult roles. Aleksi is not only the decoration of the story, but he is part of the story and must also give resounding applause to the young man who did the casting of the premiere. (As I write, I don’t know which of them was in turn yesterday!) I think that in his case, the choice of profession has been made. And if he doesn’t “end up” as an actor, it’s definitely a bad thing for the future of Finnish theatre!
Thank you Milko, I will remember this play positively for as long as I can remember anything at all!