Review: Järki ja tunteet
Sweet and silly Austenian marriage trafficking
Girlhood is an energizing resource
When I stepped into the auditorium of the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, I had little to eat but pride and prejudice. At least I couldn’t be too disappointed, I thought. Perhaps I was proud of the fact that I have never escaped from reality, for example , to the mansion-romantic worlds of Jane Austen films. I haven’t read a single novel.
For the same reason, I guess I was also prejudiced: I wonder what kind of girl’s book stuff from the early 1800s is we going to see…
So there was no disappointment. It was a surprise, delightful.
Laura Jäntti has directed the play, adapted from the novel Sense and Emotions by the American Jon Jory Austen, into an airy performance that is free from the stuffiness or artificial splendor of the manor epoch. The core juice of the play, girlishness, is not a pipe dream, but a natural resource, a source of energy that keeps the play in a lively motion.
Aino Piirola’s Finnish translation of the play also refreshes the novel written in the early 1800s so that the dialogue is easy to swallow.
Self-Aspirations in Patriarchy
In the name of truth, it must be said that the play has no deep content to offer from the rational side. Although Austen likes to be seen as an exceptionally perceptive, courageous and liberal writer in the mirror of her time, the settings and worldview of Reason and Emotions are, at least from the perspective of the 21st century, hopelessly and blissfully gone. Jory’s adaptation of the play doesn’t change that either.
Even though Austen’s central female characters are fighting back, the laws of patriarchy and the society of the estates are overcome. When forming relationships, the power of money is great, even if you consider the love side.
In any case, reason and emotions are strongly a women’s thing, and I no longer mean to be watched, but functionally. Widowed Mrs. Dashwood is forced to live with her two daughters, who are on the verge of adulthood, and move out of more luxurious circumstances when her brother takes over the family house – or especially his wife Fanny. In 19th-century England, women’s vision of the future is determined by getting into “good marriages”.
So Dashwood’s daughters, 19-year-old Elinor and Marianne, who is a couple of years younger, are eagerly being married from all sides and a little bit from all sides.
The Dashwood girls are a pair of “reason” and “feelings”. Elinor is the rational half, Marianne is a weather vane swirled by emotions. Both of them are shown men they could marry, but many of them turn out to be unsuitable, treacherous or at least so stupid at first that you can’t start with one…
The men in the play are indeed mostly complete fools, but mostly well-intentioned. They don’t really understand anything about being with women. They have lost both reason and emotions.
The power of movement and comedy
Sari Salmela’s spacious set design, freed from separate interiors, gives room for movement, which Laura Jäntti uses a lot in her direction. It highlights the vitality of young women in a rigid society.
Another secret weapon of Jäntti is the pervasive touch of comedy. Almost all of the characters have been smoothed with the fine golden dust of humour, which for its part lightens the expression without emphasizing the play as explicitly a comedy.
Kreeta Salminen and Sara Melleri , who play Elinor and Marianne, are the heart of the story. It pulsates a bit out of sync in the sense that Salminen’s role is to be more restrained and prudent, while Melleri is allowed to roast the organ open until Marianne, whom he plays, falls seriously ill. At that point, on the other hand, those who have not read Austen just have to believe in the author’s mercy to spare the life of the pill of joy – such a strong mark Melleri has left with his buzz. The duo’s acting is well paced, the chemistry between them works.
Heidi Herala is a sweet fool as a mother – a pair of adjectives that are suitable for defining the entire play. The same country is Mrs. Jennings, played by Leena Uotila , who specializes in marriage work.
Because Austenian men are what they are, I don’t have very strong impressions of them. Except for the groom candidate Willoughby, played by Pekka Strang with suitably mystery, and the overly positive landlord Middleton, who is played by Jouko Klemettilä with unrestrained luxury.
Even after all this, I am unlikely to rush into devouring Austen’s books, even though “The Wise Heart” is right at hand. But if there are theatre performances as energetic and cheerful as Laura Jäntti’s direction available, I’m happy to go and enjoy myself.