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Hertta and Olavi – and completely devoid of hindsight
Juha Vakkuri’s magnificent play silences but also makes you laugh at the Helsinki City Theatre
Juha Vakkuri: Hertta and Olavi. Helsinki City Theatre, small stage. Directed by Petteri Sallinen, set design by Oskari Torvinen,
costumes by Maija Pekkanen, lighting by Risto Heikkerö, sound by Antero Mansikka, cast by Satu Silvo, Hannu Lauri, Pekka Laiho and Sari Haapamäki.
It is a good old love play, Juha Vakkuri’s work about the love of Hertta Kuusinen and Olavi Paavolainen , but not a soap opera at all. In fact, Hertta and Olavi is an excellent Finnish drama novelty, and it will be given an interpretation equal to its own at the Helsinki City Theatre. Petteri Sallinen, who is experienced as an actor, but quite a newbie for a director, has inspired the actors of the main roles, Satu Silvo and Hannu Lauri, to a whole new kind of glow and built his interpretation on confident rhythmic turns, bold pauses and penetrating
rich theatrical experience of unspoken thoughts. Besides, everything fits a few minutes into more than two hours. An achievement too.
Everything starts Juha Vakkuri has written about the relationship between two gurus in an extremely close, exuberant and lively
A play of twists and turns. There must have been a tough choice behind it, because of course the book doesn’t tell everything about its role models or their relationships. Hertta and Olavi is a story about the birth of love, the pitfalls and the tragic ending. On top of that, Vakkuri dares to add plenty of humour to their story. At least at the premiere, on the other hand, the audience followed
without shouting at the exciting and tenaciously realised pirouettes of the story, and on the other hand, laughed at the stylish nature of the narrative
humor as well. Quite rare in the field of Finnish drama, the diversity of styles.
The story itself begins from 1951 and continues until 1964, the year of Olavi Paavolainen’s death. The first meeting is arranged by Paavolainen’s psychiatrist, and the love affair is not broken, even if it is erratic, until Paavolainen’s death. At the starting point, Olavi Paavolainen fears that his creativity will run out. Only booze and women taste good. Hertta, on the other hand, believes that her femininity and sexuality were extinguished during the long years in prison. Paavolainen woke up Herta,
but not entirely themselves. Paavolainen’s love affair with Silver Gin is not broken. However, love ignites and becomes the central theme of the drama, but the work also very skilfully transports Finnish reality
with them. For Paavolainen’s character, The Dark Monologue is an icon of the worldview and one’s own fate, for Kuusinen, the struggle for socialism,
even in bed. They love and especially Hertta, for a total of 13 years. In other words, the play believes in love. And he believes very beautifully when he creates his two middle-aged characters strongly
who dare to defy the political liturgies of their time with their relationship, Paavolainen as a bourgeois, Kuusinen
as a socialist convinced of his ideology. Best of all, Juha Vakkuri has not written any hindsight in his story. It doesn’t even occur to me to think about Hertta’s
glorified the later phases of the Soviet Union. That is not what we are talking about here. They are on the stage of their lives and on the stage of the theatre here and now. For this reason, the viewer will also find Hertta and Olav’s theatrical
captivatingness. This is also for us here and now.
Nothing easy the case of Hertta and Olavi is probably not for its perpetrators. External dramatic events are almost absent. The character of Raili, Olav’s young mistress, who appears only in a few intervals,
takes the floor from the main characters. Everything else is a conversation drama between the two of us, Hertta and Olavi. In relation to its degree of difficulty, but in other respects the interpretation directed by Petteri Sallinen responds to the challenge excellently. Has been born
A performance that you will certainly follow willingly and enjoyably. Supporting roles are also managed. Pekka Laiho is a brilliantly secretive psychiatrist and Sari Haapamäki in the role of Raili is a fresh revelation and muse, even though she is a bit paper-like. The appearance of the performance is extraordinarily elegant in its simplicity.
Oskari Torvinen’s flat set design of a few pieces of furniture changes time and place dramatically, with glowing red curtains.
Maija Pekkanen
costumes by Hertta with extraordinarily gorgeous contemporary costumes, which also have the glow of the theatre. The life of the lights designed by Risto Heikkerö is also dramatic, and their narration is skilful.
But then, the main thing. Of course, it’s a bit comical that Hannu Lauri has to convince Satu Silvo that there is nothing withered in her Hertta. He doesn’t, of course not, namely precisely carried by Silvo. But Hertta can be just as beautiful, charming,
strong, sensual and warm and yet very skillfully a touch of a man as well. We have survived in a man’s world. The viewer loves Silvo, but is also almost stunned by Hannu Lauri’s Olavi. Lauri tells very touchingly, sometimes even
painful, making the story of the frustrated and slightly decadent Dandy in the first scenes, who, after waking up to love, almost begins to
with the same breath also on the road to self-destruction. Role-playing is best Hannu Lauri, than the work of an artist who gives his all. Of these two, the performance gets its quality.
It’s a pleasure to tell you also this: My premiere companion was a little over twenty years old today. When she came to the theatre, she knew just as little about Hertta
as well as Olavi. At least for him, the performance was not a key play, let alone a collection of gossip. An enchanting play, enchanting theatre, he sighed too. It says something fundamental about the appeal of the City Theatre’s interpretation and the relevance of a fine play.