Review: Kenraali ja Casanova

General and Casanova

The most dominant element of General and Casanova is the staggeringly rich and dense text. In Pasi Lampela’s new play, the events take place in Europe in the late 1700s. The French Revolution and Finland’s position in the middle ground between Sweden and Russia are drawn in the background. The conversations include the celebrities of the era, from the Marquis de Sade to the Empress of Russia.

At the center, however, is the stagnant Teblitz Baths, where the central characters of the story, based on true events, have retreated to take stock of their past deeds and draw up a strategy for the remaining days of their lives.

Giacomo Casanova (Pekka Laiho), ravaged by the ailments of old age, writes his memoirs and intervenes in the women’s affairs of Yrjö Maunu Sprengporten (Santeri Kinnunen), who has been described as both a national hero and a traitor to the country. An intriguing tension is created by the puppet-like Korean but fatal Marquise de Bois (Saija Lentonen).

Due to their tragic unconventionality, all three characters have drifted off track in their lives, from which it is difficult to change direction under the conflicting pressures of physical facts, social conditions, one’s own thought patterns and other people’s attitudes. The text, which is based on the intense conversations between the central characters, is seemingly easy to accept, but there are also strange gaps in the performance as a whole, which create exciting cracks in the viewing experience.

For example, the comic episodes related to the character of the magician and opera singer Herman Götz (Jouko Klemettilä) are detached and inexplicable in relation to the psychologically powerful scenes of the protagonists. At the same time, they, as well as the commedia dell’arte play rehearsed in the spa and, for example, the spots that are loudly directed at the audience, create a pleasant enigma and depth to the whole.

Understated harpsichord music, epoch-like costumes and decadent set design take the viewer on a journey back in time. Visual solutions highlight how the world around us has changed, but certain themes related to human life, such as the need to love and be loved, remain the same from one time to the next.