Review: Einsteinin rikos

Santeri Kinnunen’s Einstein is not happy about his achievements.

Santeri Kinnunen, who has distinguished himself in many farces at the Helsinki City Theatre, now shows his talent in two dramas. He is brilliant in Uncle Vanya and now Albert Einstein in the play The Crime of Einstein, a war-shying pacifist whose theory of relativity began a development in physics towards the atomic bomb and its dropping on Japan during World War II.

The one-and-a-half-hour-long play, translated from French into Finnish and directed by Kari Heiskanen, focuses on the conversations between the tramp played by Pekka Huotari and Einstein. Scientists reflect on their choices and suffer from them because they have contributed to the complete destruction of life on Earth. Santeri Kinnunen is believable in the pangs of his character’s soul and plays one of the top roles of his career.