Review: Hitchcock ja blondi

Theatre for film lovers

Mari Perankoski and Mikko Kivinen in Helsinki City Theatre’s new play Hitchcock and the Blonde. Tapio Vanhatalo

THEATRE
Helsinki City Theatre’s novelty is not a play about Hitchcock, but the spirit of a master of horror and suspense is clearly present. The play tells the story of middle-aged film professor Alex (Carl-Kristian Rundman), who lures Nicola (Sanna-June Hyde), a film-crazy student girl, with him to the Greek archipelago to investigate his rare film discovery.
The main plot is alternated with the story of Alfred Hitchcock (Mikko Kivinen), who is test-shooting a blonde beauty (Mari Perankoski) for the well-known shower-stabbing scene. The play contains a lot of trivia about film history, so Hitchcock and the Blonde is manna for film lovers. It is also worth getting a carefully compiled manual that includes, among other things: Articles by Peter von Bagh and Francois Truffaut.
Director Neil Hardwick has found an interesting tragedy that unites a modern man, also as the basis for this play. A man always loses his first “blonde” and then life is wasted looking for the same thing over and over again, in vain.
Hitchcock’s obsession with cool blondes has also been investigated through research. Terry Johnson’s play, which premiered in London in March 2003, ponders the solution using the horror comedy method. Hitchcock and the Blonde unfolds as a tragicomic love story.
Fortunately, Hardwick’s statement, a new attempt to make a theatre with rich forms completely devoid of content, is not yet realised, at least not yet in this direction.
Eternal voyeur
The present moment of the play is in 1999. Hitchcock prepares for his filming in 1959 and the dusty film reels turn out to be Hitchcock’s (189911980) unknown youthful work from 1919. The film cans contain a few seconds of surviving images from the movie The Uninvited Guest, from which Alex and Nicola build a story.
It seems that Hitchcock himself has killed the blonde beauty of the film, i.e. lost her. From this adolescent trauma onwards, the director reshot the blonde over and over again in all of his key films, even using the same hairstyle for women.
In the 1959 test shoot of Psycho, Hitchcock portrays a naked blonde and admits to being an eternal voyeur for whom it was enough to look at perfect beauty.
Desires, maybe even abilities, were not enough for anything intimate.
Almost as unhappy and at the same time comical is the story of Alex and Nicola. They start the trip with clean cards, but end up on the side of a scam.
The problem with Johnson’s text and Hardwick’s direction is the false expectations created by the play. During the long first act of an hour and a half, the viewer wonders why Rundman and the Maiden are spinning there. Why doesn’t the play start already! Contrary to expectations, Kivinen’s Hitch is actually a supporting role in this play.
However, all the roles succeed well, the character direction goes well. The professor, who is enthusiastic about Rundman’s work, is a believably handsome role. The breakdown of the façade and the change of appreciation to pathetic tells of the man’s human tragedy with compassion.
Hyde’s twenty-something, superficial blonde girl captivates with her openness and freshness. The coolness of Perankoski’s blonde is a cleverly Hitchcockian combination of beauty and cruelty.
Kari Mattila plays the small role of the husband in a rigid style and represents perhaps the best comedy side of the play. Mikko Kivinen as Hitchcock looks incredible. He must have watched the hosts of the TV series Hitchcock Presents carefully and learned a clear-spoken and at the same time loose-cheeked way of speaking directly from his role model, including the “good evening” greeting.
Methods of film
The staging has tried to imitate cinematicism. The huge canvas walls move awkwardly and the projected interior images are untheatrical. The musical effects taken from the album of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, do not sound right, at least not in the first performances. The tearing violin strokes of horror films seem to be superimposed, not suitable for the play’s soundscape or general atmosphere.
A few years ago, the theatre began to envy the film. To smooth out replication, microphones and audio playback were invented. Videos began to be used as a narrative tool.
Above all, the aim was to eliminate the dark breaks between scenes 1 changes of scenery and positions 1 so-called “change of scenery”. with film cuts. Sometimes, on rare occasions, this use of loan methods has been successful. Hitchcock and the Blonde shows that the means of living image should be used judiciously to enliven live theatre.
Terry Johnson: Hitchcock and the Blonde, premiere 27.1. On the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre. Translated by Kersti Juva, film expert Pirjo Honkasalo, directed by Neil Hardwick, set design by Antti Mattila, lighting by Juha Westman, sound by Antero Mansikka, costume design by Elina Kolehmainen, cast: Carl-Kristian Rundman, Sanna-June Hyde, Mikko Kivinen, Mari Perankoski, Kari Mattila, and on film by Inka Tiitinen and Petri Johansson.