Review: Tiny Dynamite – Dynamiittisiru
The mystical excursion of the crippled and shy
Plays by young English dramatists seem to be dropping on our stages in abundance. What they all have in common is some kind of precision research of this time. The children of a fragmented world walk around uncertain and questioning, mirroring their lives.
Abi Morgan’s Dynamite Chip at Theatre Studio Pasila takes the viewer into a partly mystical world. It can be seen as a symbolic depiction of an uncertain state or as a longing for a fairy tale pulsating alongside a cruel reality.
The main characters are a crippled and shy man who share a common childhood history. Rujo Anthony has been struck by lightning at the age of six, and that event leaves its mark on everything that happens.
Both friends look for similar strange incidents on the pages of newspapers, where some random thing has led to another and then maybe even a third, etc. The problems of cause and effect are explored both in the text and in the theatrical solutions.
Anthony has sunk down into the gutters and left himself to life. The shy Lucien has progressed in his career, but the pieces of his personal life have not fallen into place.
Every summer, Lucien takes Anthony somewhere in the countryside, dresses him clean and feeds him properly. That is where the time of the play is spent even now.
The purpose is to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and live a small piece of the past, childhood. However, there is a nasty memory that they both want to escape. The reason for that memory rises to the surface as a question mark in the form of a local young woman.
Madeleine brings food to men every day. Gradually, he becomes friends with both of them. Time is spent swimming and talking.
Strange things are happening around us. Dishes fall over on their own, chairs dance in the air and sandwiches fly. There is not much effort to explain mysticism, it is just wondered.
Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen’s directorial work leaves a lot to the viewer’s interpretation.
Together with Jyrki Seppä’s ethereal set design, the whole exudes unrelenting tensions. It rains and sparks on the stage, fireflies and bees swarm there. Nature takes a strong grip alongside the text. Humans do not have the answer to everything.
Precise stage work
As a man struck by lightning, Jouko Klemettilä is openly questioning and questioning. There is a fresh childishness in the expression, through which the blank of adulthood can be heard. Klemettilä stretches wonderfully over the dark moments towards a new opportunity. His fearless grip opens up the shy guy’s introversion.
Eppu Salminen’s shy Lucien is a precise work. Nervousness and fierceness are pushed through with the power of a career missile, but the fearfulness of a little boy still beads on the surface.
Merja Pietilä’s Madeleine tears apart the web of mysticism by simply stating that there are strange electrical phenomena in the locality.
The entire role work fits into a similarly straightforward and unpretentious mold. Country girls are not surprised. Pietilä also gets to play two other female characters without lines in the men’s past. They are silent and slow-motion images on stage.
The play begins with Lucien’s story of two boys, a crippled and a shy one, and it also ends with the same narrative. In a way, the character tells his own story. That might be one biographical choice. The viewer can create different kinds of stories based on what they see.
Abi Morgan: Tiny Dynamite – Dynamite chip. Translated by Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen and Heli Kivimäki. Director: Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen. Set design and costumes: Jyrki Seppä. Lighting design: Teppo Saarinen. Sound design: Ari-Pekka Saarikko. Music: Petri Lapintie and Ari-Pekka Saarikko. Cast: Jouko Klemettilä, Eppu Salminen and Merja Pietilä. Finnish premiere at the Helsinki City Theatre’s Theatre Studio Pasila on 28 March 2003.