Review: Kipupiste

A grim true story about the people’s home

Director Kari Heiskanen clearly doesn’t like easy challenges. That was not the case this time either, when he took up a play written by Bengt Ahlfors and Johan Bargum based on a book by the Swedish Elisabeth Åsbrink .

Pain Point is the name of a play on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, which tells the story of a production directed by the well-known playwright Lars Norén , which received a lot of attention in Sweden a decade and a half ago. The prisoners who contacted him played the main role in it. They wanted Norén to write a play with them about the conditions in prison.

After overcoming his hesitation, Norén begins to cooperate with the prisoners, and this is how a chain of events begins that led to the completely unexpected. In front of the production, two of the prisoners announce that they are National Socialists. Despite this, the work will continue and its proposals will be taken outside the prison world.

The play caused a scandal in Sweden. Norén was accused of supporting far-right ideologies, but he continued. It is left to the viewer to decide whether he continued for too long.

The information that one member of the acting troupe participated in a bloody act that led to the murder of two police officers after the production of the play certainly affects the opinion of the viewer of each play. It is probably no wonder that the performance makes one or the other wonder where the line of showing understanding is, when the limits of gullibility have been crossed.

Ahlfors and Bargum have created a touching play that highlights the prisoners’ views on prison administration and society, as well as the author’s desire to make a theatrical implementation of a topic he considers important. That is the stamped material in this play.

In addition to being labeled, the actual content of the play is in the speech, which is about the responsibility of artists, also about morality. How should they react and take into account in their work, for example, the activities of supporters of cross-border ideas in society – in this case in a Swedish people’s home?

A subject based on real events is challenging in its documentary nature, but so is how it is expressed on stage. Heiskanen has chosen the path of simple work. His direction is just as harsh as it should be, and the excesses made possible by the subject matter have not been taken. The fight would have been won, but it was not done.

The consensus has been evident in the team of makers. The stripped-down set is in line with the directions.

Time has already passed since Jouko Klemettilä played the lead role. Once he has reached such a point, he excels and fits into his character naturally, is suitably fearful, hesitant, but in the end, he remains firm in his position. The prisoner trio of Niko Saarela, Sampo Sarkola and Tommi Rantamäki act as they should. The years in prison have left their mark on their characters.