Review: Asmodeus ja 1313 sielua
Asmodeus and 1313 Souls is a comedy that delves into the Finnish soul in detail. However, the main emphasis is more on those souls than on Finnishness. Souls, their market value and possible purchase transactions.
With the play, the Helsinki City Theatre will have a play directed by Juha Hurme on its stage for the first time. At the same time, it will also be the last time, as next year Hurme has announced that he will retire from major productions and focus on wilderness theatre, which he has worked with before.
Hurme is a kind of all-round genius who seems to find unique gems in Finnish cultural history wherever he happens to look. This time, he highlights the somewhat forgotten Finnish-Swedish writer Runar Schildt (1888-1925), whose short story the first half of the play is based on
In a way, we get two plays for the price of one with Asmodeus. The first part follows Schildt’s original story, in which the demon king Asmodeus makes a bet with the Marshal of Hell that he will manage to collect 13 contracts for human souls. The farcical story takes place in Helsinki in 1913.
The second part of the play jumps more recognizably into the world tinged with Hurme’s peculiar humour. It’s 2026, the setting is still Helsinki (which has been evacuated to Lahti due to the flood), but the number of souls to bet on has increased and Asmodeus has to collect 1300 contracts for souls. However, the task seems to be even easier in Finland in the near future.
Both sides of the play are depicted by strong social observation. It’s as if the writer of the play were using the play as a theoretical laboratory where people are made to react to each other. Hurme is the nobility of observers, as we can see from his in-depth books. Hurme also calls Schildt an observer. At a discussion event, at a two-person Runar Schildt fan club with Kjell Westö , Hurme says that Schildt thought that “a writer does not jump into the flow of life, but a writer watches others splash around there”.
Underneath the farcical humour, we can see a stream of people’s fundamental habits and weak points, in which the viewer is made to wade. Situations are taken to the extreme and that’s why it’s difficult to recognize yourself from them at first, but that’s exactly why the moment of recognition feels even sweeter when it happens. Or maybe more bitter.
Vappu Nalbantoglu , who plays the role of Asmodeus, is an actor who throws himself into it with his whole being, electrifying the stage of the City Theatre. The role, which allows for exaggeration, seems to suit an actor who mischievously makes contact with both his co-actors and the audience. The demonic character really rises above ordinary mortals and brings a credibility to the play that makes the audience hold on to their souls.
Asmodeus trades like a slick car dealer and talks people into a frenzy. However, as we move into the future, people no longer seem to be so attached to their immortal souls. Individuals are less important than the reference groups they would like to belong to, and ideologies have become personalities. Characters appear on stage in an increasingly diverse group, and the actors of the City Theatre are capable of adapting to the most diverse situations with admirable skill.
More information about the play can be found on the Helsinki City Theatre website here. It is a genuinely funny play that combines new and old culture in a way that speaks to modern society. Thinkers like Schildt and Hurme will live on in culture, even though we have to dig them up from history every now and then in an increasingly fast time.