Review: Grönholms metod

Recruitment has become an art form in its own right

Jorci Galceran’s new play evaluates the new challenges of working life

Lilla Teatern has a real hit in its hands, unless the chilling subject matter of a new Catalan play manages to drive away the audience. Jordi Galceran’s Grönholms metod is an overwhelmingly funny play full of surprise twists and turns, but it is not a traditional boulevard comedy.

The venue is the branch office of an international Swedish company in Spain and its meeting room, where four people are locked for a high-level job interview for a couple of hours. A method developed by a Swedish psychologist is used to test the applicants’ creative intelligence.

The basic idea of Galceran’s play is so brilliantly simple and effective that you can’t help but admire it.
At the same time, the play offers its creators a variety of options, especially in terms of the position of the spectator.
In the performance at the Theatre Academy last winter as part of Nordic cooperation, the audience was placed in a common circle with job seekers. In Lillan, the audience watches from the auditorium, as if through a mirror window, how the characters survive in the laboratory space staged by Ralf Forsström to be both airy and closed at the same time.

The audience is put in the position of a jury, although without the slightest idea of the methods used in the test. To guarantee suspense, there is no need to tell more about the events and characters of the play. Not everything is as it seems at first, and the pattern has time to turn around several times before the final decision.
Grönholm’s Method is not only a terribly funny play. It is also a gruesome depiction of the faceless use of power and the unreasonable demands of working life. The employee is expected to invest 110 per cent.

The strengths of Galceran’s play are also reflected in the fact that when considering the possible weaknesses of the performance, all the questions raised by the direction and the performances seem to bounce back to the events of the play and the actions of its characters. The subject itself is so utterly confusing and theatrical.
Pentti Kotkaniemi’s direction is as intense and simple as Ralf Forsström’s set design. A certain angularity always ends up being a skilful part of deceiving the audience. For example, you can take a play about casting, Jonna Järnefelt, Sampo Sarkola and Pekka Strang act together stylistically confidently. The volume keys of the trio have been set in such a balance that there is an atmosphere of a big game party in the air – both in terms of the rehearsal situation of the play and the acting itself.
Carl-Kristian Rundman deviates from the common line stylistically, but not in intensity. The choice serves as a deception, and it no longer matters much from the point of view of the whole whether the decision is made by the author, director or actor.
The riddle is shared together with the audience.

To the credit of the entire working group, I must also mention that the performance managed to fully engage me as well, even though the twists and turns of the play were familiar from beforehand.
Lillan’s first year as part of the Helsinki City Theatre has been quite exemplary. Bengt Ahlfors’ play 1945, seen in the autumn, drew the old audience back to the theatre. Grönholm’s method will certainly attract a lot of new viewers.

Lauri Meri/ HS 14.1.06