Review: Tunneli

The tunnel takes you deep into humanity

Choreographer and artist professor Arja Raatikainen’s latest work, The Tunnel, delves through the layers of humanity and presents the results of this drilling to the viewers in the form of easily recognizable images.
The Tunnel, made for the Helsinki City Theatre’s Dance Group, relies on the absolute presence of the dancers. The work, which combines dance and speech, is so full of emotions that the performers’ mere technical performance would take away the basis of the entire performance.
The prevailing emotional state is sadness, which sometimes even takes on aggressive tones. There are also a few hilarious scenes in the book, but even though they momentarily lighten the whole, they basically emphasize the seriousness of the overall mood even more. This is precisely why The Tunnel is a genuinely touching work.
This work by Raatikainen is also about the essence of humanity and the survival of the individual in the structures of society. The pressure from the outside is concretized in the form of wandering crowds of people and continuous progress. If someone stops for a moment to listen, the herd will very quickly sweep them away again.
The work depicts not only general pressure, but also today’s plagues, such as stress caused by enormous work pressure, in a more specific way. In the harshest image of the tunnel, people have transformed into a herd lost in the bit matrix. The dancers dressed in white literally disappear into the lattice projections created by Tülay Schakir, which occupy the entire stage space.
In the midst of all this mechanisation, Raatikainen has placed an incredibly beautiful and touching encounter in its simplicity, which is a reminder of everyone’s longing for intimacy. The duet performed by Unto Nuora and Kaisa Torkkeli consists only of waltz-like steps and a few lifts. Still, the authenticity of the scene makes a chunk in the viewer’s throat.
In addition to the overall view, one of the most impressive features of the Tunnel is the combination of movement and speech used in several places. At the very beginning, where we start from a kind of dream world, it is precisely the combination of movement, a few lines and music that creates a fairytale-like atmosphere. On the other hand, speech and movement also work together in a comically delicious way. This is the case both in the monologue of The Happy Man, performed by Ville Sormunen, and in the excerpt from Strindberg’s Dream Play, performed as an opera by Janne Marja-aho and Sofia Hill.
The decisive basic structure for the general atmosphere of the tunnel is created by the stage design designed by Schakir. The white set takes on different shapes with the help of lighting design. The combination of white and strong colours is a distancing solution that contributes to the melancholy and severity of the work.