Review: Grönholms metod

WE PLAY – WHO LOSES?

Jordi Galceran: Grönholm’s method. Lilla Teatern. Director: Pentti Kotkaniemi. Set design and costumes: Ralf Forsström. Cast: Carl-Kristian Rundman, Sampo Sarkola, Jonna Järnefelt, Pekka Strang. Premiere 12.1 2006.

Spanish author Jordi Galceran’s comedy, Grönholm’s Method, about looking for a job has conquered Europe. It’s no wonder because the play is so timely and offers today’s impatient viewers an excellent package of entertainment – a mix of Big Brother, Amazing Race and harsh reality. The comedy lasts a little under 2 hours without a break and serves as a great alternative to a movie night. The play’s theme – looking for a job – is becoming more and more mundane for today’s individual in our competitive, tough short-term job society. Add good actors who master their waiting room with brilliance and you have a pretty sure success with us as well.

It all takes place in the swanky waiting room at the Swedish company Dekia’s headquarters in Barcelona. Into this formidably designed room with a huge Miró on the wall (Ralf Forsström’s set design) comes four candidates who want to become sales manager (or Sales executive as it is called), but we soon learn that one of them is a representative of the Swedish but multinational DEKIA’s (hmppf! sounds familiar) employment team and not a real candidate. It only remains to figure out which of the four.
The game of cat and mouse continues throughout the evening. The candidates are given different tasks to solve through a gap in the wall. The four of us (and we) never meet anyone else. Jordi Galceran’s previous job as a screenwriter for TV series shines through this work – but by no means in a negative sense. He has managed to create an entertaining play, a comedy thriller entirely in TV format, that works more than well on stage.

At least it does at Lillan where we are met by four very professional actors who take care of the overall menu for the evening. Mikael Rundman’s anxious, Sampo Sarkola’s odd, Jonna Järnefelt’s determined and Pekka Strang’s ruthless search work together perfectly, but at the same time leave enough room for personal digressions. Jordi Galceran has built enough turning points into history to keep the tension going. Pentti Kotkaniemi’s direction is invisible – but precise.

Grönholm’s method is well dimensioned given its “message”. It’s a digital snapshot of today’s reality – not even that exaggerated. People laugh the most at what they fear most, it is said. And who can be sure today that they will not end up in a similar situation where they are weighed against others (the applicant) and also forced to do things they definitely do not want to achieve their goal? Who is safe in their chair in the free marketing society? Grönholm’s method does not offer any devastating discovery or philosophy – but it does sow small grains of thought between the laughter that you can either ponder on or let go. The evening is entertaining in any case.

After the play, the theatre asks the audience (including critics) not to reveal the end of the play to friends or acquaintances. So I’ll not do that (as always before).

C.Thelestam