Saarikoski was his own ism

A young poet (Oskari Katajisto) drinks and works hard
In the Helsinki City Theatre’s play Omaksi kuvaksi. Comrades (Sami
Hokkanen) carry more liquor. STEFAN BREMER

Helsinki City Theatre’s Own Image shows the private side
Pentti Saarikoski
THEATRE
As is well known, making theatre
of the great men and women of history is problematic, to say the least. This is especially the case
when the person is from recent history and well-known. Can it even be
Theoretically, it is possible to summarize thousands of pages of biographical information into a couple of
An hour-long play?
No. It’s always a matter of choices, interpretations and
The justifications of which can be debated endlessly. This is also the case
In the Helsinki City Theatre’s play Omaksi kuvaksi.
The one who comes
to the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre to look for an explanation or
biographical overview of a phenomenon called
Pentti Saarikoski, will probably be disappointed. Instead, we see
a play that is attached to the young artistic genius above all
the problem of existence. This is the purpose of the
serves well.
How can Pentti be explained?
In his own image
limits its perspective to the personal aspects of the young Pentti Saarikoski’s life
motives. The author’s political motives and relationships with other contemporaries
The play deals only with references.
The year is 1962, the 25-year-old
Pentti, who has an alcohol problem, has ended up in the Kupittaa mental hospital
to “calm down”. The doctor tries to do an analysis, but Pena insists
typewriter. James Joyce’s Ulysses is waiting for its translator.
Flashbacks
through the play, the play explores Saarikoski’s childhood and early youth. We will see
a boy who is too talented for his environment, who tries to “read himself
through the world”, to get to grips with the mysteries of the surrounding society
through heroes and great philosophers, instead of really sinking
into the middle of the world.
Ankara’s religious home develops
a multifaceted poetic genius who is not suitable among other people
to live.
To some extent, the explanatory factor of the disease seems to be
The cruelty and duplicity of Saarikoski’s arrogant father (Seppo Maijala)
moralizing, but Pentti is not explained by Oedipus alone.
Own
seems to say that Saarikoski’s problem was a genius that did not
allowed any explanation of the world to rise to its own monumentality.
above.
In the end, Saarikoski always primarily serves his own
purpose, but unlike a genuine narcissist, he looks at himself and his own
life too closely, is constantly aware of the existence of a human being.
of the ultimate absurdity. A young man creates poet Pentti Saarikoski
into its own image, but that image is only a fragmented reflection,
an unreal and constantly distorted representation of the self.
Inventive
Atonement
Töyräs’s direction is remarkably stage-like, considering that
The play also features a lot of pure poetry matinee. Although
stage symbolism with all its book stairs and flying devices has an impact
sometimes even too clever, serves as director and set designer Tina Jokitalo’s
Ingenuity is very much on purpose.
The play progresses slowly,
with the mental hospital acting as a frame story. At first, the tempo can even be felt
dragging, but in the end, the poetic nature of the direction and the
Mixing with reality starts to strangely charm.
In his own image
seems to be smiling at himself, even at life. The point of view is clear: Plato, Dionysus
and the twilight scattered here and there explain this Saarikoski more than
Marx, Engels and the cultural policy of the 1960s.
The basic set of Jokitalo
is simple but functional, with two doors, one bed and one that opens in the middle
A large wall that also serves as a screen. Projections onto some of the play’s
The episodes create a very cinematic atmosphere.
Controlled interpretation
Oskari
Katajisto does a great job in the lead role of the play. The whole two walk side by side
and for half an hour, a poet innocently played by Pekko Pulakka
as a child.
It would be easy to flatten Saarikoski into a drunken artist stereotype,
but Katajisto will not fall for this. In the end, the interpretation is quite controlled and physical,
Above all, Saarikoski becomes a manic workaholic who does not follow his father’s yoke.
no longer question his role as a poet and the classical
as a translator of literature.
This is his mission, but what to do
does it have with the surrounding society? Not much, young Saarikoski can’t
real contact with his world, even if he breeds it
children, too.
As a pet of the left, he is just as embarrassed. No
Saarikoski has been a proper communist, to bend to what someone has invented earlier
theories. He was his own ism.
Tuija Töyräs: In Her Own Image,
premiere on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre on 21.10. Director: Tuija
Bumpy. Music: Markus Fagerudd. Set design and projections: Tina Jokitalo.
Costumes: Maija Pekkanen. Lights: Risto Heikkerö, Tina Jokitalo. Voice: Mauri
Siirala. Cast: Oskari Katajisto, Pekko Pulakka, Seppo Maijala, Eija Vilpas,
Hannu Lauri, Marjatta Raita, Riku Kemppinen, Merja Pietilä, Sanna Saarijärvi,
Susa Saukko, Sami Hokkanen.