Review: Jemina – The Great American Show
Jemina – in the end, humanity remains
Crotch squats and the question of whether Russians love their children… That’s where we start. Jemina – The Great American Show , based on Jyrki Karttunen’s concept, is a rough and bold drag and gender blending performance that combines dance and theatre. Everything is also very political.
The work is a co-production of the Helsinki City Theatre’s dance group, Helsinki Dance Company and Zodiak at the Cable Factory’s Pannuhalli. The audience is seated in round restaurant tables in the middle of Pannuhalli, and the performance spreads out on every side of the space and on the stages and catwalks placed in the middle. Jukka Huitila’s set design and beautiful lighting design clad Pannuhalli in red.
Jemina is a depiction of a woman’s life, womanhood and the many pressures that come with it. Femininity is explored from many different perspectives and on many levels of history. On stage, you will see feminists with their balls, as well as princesses, brides, mothers and blonde cheerleaders.
The work has ten performers, 5 men and 5 women. Gender roles can be blended in any way, but in the end, humanity remains. The humanity that forces us to encounter other people, other ideas and ideologies. We share the same biology, despite different ideologies.
The performance is written and directed by Heidi Räsänen. The manuscript also introduces dialects into the language of the work, from the Lapland dialect to Karelia. In this way, it emphasizes the down-to-earth nature of the work and the recognizability of everyday situations. The experiences of the Cold War are shared by a girl from Lapland as well as a female worker in an arms factory in the United States. The spirit of the Cold War of the 80s is trying to resurface. Are we returning to the time of confrontation? The dichotomy where masculinity and femininity are also seen as opposites?
Jemina (Jyrki Karttunen) has many roles and lives in different stages of American history. Jemina Karttunen wants to dominate, without shying away from any means. She is the mother, father and captain who determines the direction of the show and brings dynamics to it. Defeat the other aspirants to become Jemina. Karttunen’s choreographies are insightful. She created her popular character Jemina in 2012 with the book Jemina’s Many Lives . The Jemina we are now seeing is a statement and strongly social.
Jemina is confusingly surprising. The emotional states of the performance and thus the choreographies take you from edge to side. A fashion show will be seen on the catwalk. The Refugee Collection spring collection is drawn in a stylized way and repeats the idle aesthetics of the fashion world in the language of movement. Wearing a life jacket. A moment later, a very naked choreography is seen on stage, which creates an intimate, close and touching atmosphere to the scene.
If the movement language of a work is surprisingly diverse, so is its music. The performance will feature works by Ravel, Beethoven, Kikka and Sting, among others . My own favorite was the beautifully understated choreography to the beat of Ravel’s Bolero. While the choreographies made for Bolero have usually been wide-arched and spectacular, this time we see an almost minimalist, touching scene.
Jemina’s strength and weakness can be found in the same elements. The rapidly changing scenes create the intense and surprising atmosphere of the work, but also fragment the viewing experience. Jemina is by no means trying to be aesthetically gentle, quite the opposite. The viewer will not have an easy time, but will have to find the answers to the questions raised by the work themselves.