Review: Metsäperkele

Metsä Board was preceded by the Devil

If today’s open-plan office and meeting culture is starting to taste like wood, you should visit the Helsinki City Theatre to see how things used to be done.


The Forest Devil, directed by Kari Heiskanen, tells the story of perhaps Finland’s most colourful industrial patron, G. A. Serlachius – unashamedly and without sparing profanity.

Gustaf Adolf Serlachius, played by Pertti Sveholm, was born in 1830 in Ilomantsi. After his father died and the family became poorer, the boy had to leave school and go to work as a pharmacist’s assistant. Later, after graduating as a pharmacist, Serlachius moved to Tampere, where he progressed all the way to the position of director and owner of the Tennberg pharmacy there.

At the time, Tampere was a rising industrial city, and the waves of capitalism created wealth for the owning class, of which Serlachius wanted a share. However, the pharmacist, who had risen from poor conditions and was unfit for a salon, found it difficult to advance among the Swedish-speaking elite.

Ambition quickly turned into an obsession, which Sveholm manages to bring out excellently in his performance. In 1865, Serlachius became acquainted with Fredrik Idestam, a mining engineer played by Risto Kaskilahti, who was building a groundwood mill on the shore of the Tammerkoski rapids. Serlachius was in charge of the factory for a few years, but his hunger grew as he ate.
With a large debt burden on his shoulders, he ended up building his own factory on the shore of the Mäntänkoski rapids. Serlachius and Idestam became each other’s rivals, from which Heiskanen draws a lot of humour for his play.

Serlachius always had to do better, whether it was a new pulp boiler or a holiday trip. The mishaps of Serlachius’ trusted friend, lawyer Alexander Neiglick (Eero Aho), who gets drunk, bring their own share of humour to the play.

Patruna’s paper business experienced constant setbacks: sometimes the recession took away demand and creditors held a gun to their heads, sometimes the entire factory burned to the ground. Serlachius sacrificed everything he had for the factories, which was reflected in tragedies in his family life.

The gripping play depicts Serclachius as a madman blinded by capitalism, whose tantrums plague his family and subordinates suffer. However, his achievements cannot be underestimated. He was one of the pioneers of the Finnish paper industry and a catalyst for foreign trade.

Serlachius’ grit and perseverance are still alive. Metsä Board, formerly M-real, listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, was originally Metsä-Serla, which consisted of the merger of G.A. Serlacius Oy and Metsäliitto Industries.