– –
THEATRE
Three people per room
Written and directed by Bengt Ahlfors, the theatrical comedy revolves around the relationship between reality and illusion
-
Bengt Ahlfors: Kasimir and Charlie. Translated by Lasse Pöysti. Helsinki City Theatre’s studio Elsa. Directed by Bengt Ahlfors,
set design by Erik Salvensen, costumes by Cris af Enehielm, lighting by Risto Heikkerö, sound by Eradj Nazimov. Cast: Lasse Pöysti, Outi Mäenpää
and Taisto Oksanen.
Bengt Ahlfors’ new comedy Illusionisterna has been given such a boring and unstructured title at the Helsinki City Theatre that
that it should be clarified right from the start. Kasimir and Charlie do not tell, as one might imagine, the secret
About the encounter between agents. It also does not follow the journey of a man and a dog together. -
The play’s Kasimir Kant (formerly Kasimir Kant) Jönsson) is a 74-year-old actress who is joined by a thirty-year-old who calls herself Charlie
Charlotta Wallgren. -
She has seen Casimir as King Lear and brings him a play she has written: Casimir is the only conceivable one
candidate for the central role of God. -
Kasimir and Charlie are essentially about infatuation. But above all, the play deals with the relationship between reality and imagination
difficult but fascinating equation. -
- An aging man
There is chaos in life and in the apartment, which can only be matched by the sprawling and expansive mass of text produced by a woman.
Charlie admires Kasimir’s ability to tap into his own deepest emotions in his work, while proudly emphasizing his own ability to process
common themes. Kasimir, on the other hand, is ready to discuss the technical requirements of his profession. -
When the City Theatre’s performance is examined from the point of view of the themes arising from Ahlfors’ play, it must be said that the working group
has taken one huge risk in creating an illusion. Riski’s name is Lasse Pöysti. -
Pöysti’s characteristic weight as an actor gives the performance such a basis in reality that it is almost unreasonable to ask the audience
to believe in the mediocre actor played by Pöysti. Has this man only been able to get into leading roles at the age of 60,
When the geniuses of their own generation have already burned themselves out? -
- However, the risk is
supported it. Pöysti manages the situation and carries the performance, even though he has to lie down for a long scene towards the end
under the covers. -
Pöysti, who is flaunting in his underpants, performs his role with pleasure and shows off his skills in an almost unprecedentedly joyful way. -
Pöysti also bears responsibility for the witty wording of the performance as a translator. -
From the point of view of the viewer experience, another interesting question is related to the venue. -
- Ahlfors’ play
would certainly have a different attitude, much more gentle, if you could see it a kilometer away in Svenskan or Lillan. -
Now the environment underlines the rather staggering difference between Finnish and Swedish-speaking theatre culture, which I believe Asko Sarkola
strives for its part to equalize. -
On the Finnish-speaking side, theatre as a phenomenon is certainly just as layered, but the approach to it is somehow more direct. -
Maybe it’s the much-talked about primitiveness? -
Kasimir and Charlie are based on the cultured theatre-within-a-theatre setting, with which the Swedish-speaking side is so devotedly
and whose roots, the Gustavian era and the Swedish court, can be glimpsed on a small stage at the moment
in Frej Lindqvist’s play Armfelt. -
- However, the evening is not
only Pöysti. Equally delightful is Outi Mäenpää, one of the best comedians of the younger generation. While Charlie’s
dramatic arc is more visible than Kasimir’s, it is still thinner as a role. -
Mäenpää solves the dilemma by emphasizing the character’s theatricality. -
Encounters between two people do not take place so much on a personal level as on a professional level. A satire that Ahlfors directs at the conscious
women artists and autobiographical works written for the purpose of revenge, is delicious, if one-linerd. -
- As a third wheel
Taisto Oksanen’s doctor, who comes for a check-up, gets involved and is allowed to represent everything worth resisting to Charlie.
Oksanen both handsomely carries the entire burden of a middle-class man and reveals a sensitive individual underneath it. -
The performance is skilfully kicked off as a farce. Laughter warms the audience and makes them accept the situations and characters
the ultimate angularity. -
The rest is a warm-hearted comedy familiar from Ahlfors. There are no laughs, but the events unfold in an exciting way. The writer is a Master of Arts who works as a part-time teacher and theatre critic and will assist Helsingin Sanomat in the future. -