Review: Kohtauksia eräästä avioliitosta
A subtle marriage drama keeps its grip
Ingmar Bergman’s marriage drama Scenes from a Marriage premiered on the Helsinki City Theatre’s Little Finland stage. Drama has been performed very little in professional theatres. The adaptation, translated by Jukka-Pekka Pajunen , was performed at the end of the 1990s at both the KOM Theatre and the Oulu City Theatre.
On the stage of Little Finland, we will see a play directed and adapted by Pasi Lampela , in which Lampela’s hand is clear. The play is an unpretentious, uncomplicated, clear-cut and straightforward story about a marriage in its various stages.
As a director, Lampela has developed in his personal supervision. The performance is also sensitive in all its directness, and the acting is very subtle and full of nuances. The rhythm is especially great in the performance, and silence, wordlessness, is of great importance.
The Importance of Physicality
In the play, a happy-looking marriage is just an illusion. Just when the pages of women’s magazines have had time to interview a happy and successful family, a crisis is already ahead. The man has another woman.
The theoretical question of what it would feel like if one half of a married couple fell in love with the other comes true. It is more significant than the fact that the wife of the family is a divorce lawyer and the husband is a psychologist.
A married couple is fighting for their existence precisely in the areas where they have been involved as professionals in other people’s marriages. Everything that crystallizes in existence is physical. Sex. Violence.
In Markus Tsokkinen’s set design, life’s harrowing moments are seen in a minimalist environment. Director Lampela occasionally puts actress Merja Larivaara in a dramatic position in the backlight, which in itself looks stylish and gives direction to a new scene.
The strong line of the performance is that while the events unfold in one direction, the characters in the play develop in the other. When a man, a balanced, analytical, powerful man, is a powerful figure at the beginning of the play, the woman rises to her blossom towards the end of the performance.
Again, we are on the verge of the physical. A woman becomes desirable.
Interesting life stories
Scenes from a marriage hold her grip. Lampela knows his drama so well that there are plenty of elements to keep him engaged. The characters in the play and their fates are interesting.
Eero Aho is the real Johan and Merja Larivaara is the real Marianne. Johan and Marianne are a real married couple.
Eero Aho, in particular, throws himself strongly into his Johan. The person’s direction is clear and the state of uncertainty is very revealing. Aho’s Johan is a naked and harrowing person who is at his most interesting in a weak state. Perhaps because the person is open and alive at that time, rather than analytical and analysing the situation from the outside.
Larivaara also succeeds in her role, and Marianne is perhaps even one of the most touching characters for him. The actor’s interpretation is deep and the pain is felt. But Larivaara’s teasing Marianne, who grows stronger in her femininity, also brings a sense of justice to the performance.
Scenes from a Marriage, adapted and directed by Lampela, is a strong drama. Touching and tangible. It remains the foundation of theatre through strong acting and storytelling. The performance also raises the question of whether fundamental love can ever disappear.