Review: Ens lite lugn i huset

Florian Zeller is the screenwriter who has two Helsinki premieres on the same weekend. At Lilla Teatern, a traditional and fast-paced farce is served, where Max Forsman shines as the man whose life collapses like a house of cards while he just wants to listen to jazz music.

In the marketing of A Little Calm in the House, which will have its Finnish premiere here, Lilla Teatern has emphasized that it is tied to the theatre house’s strong farce tradition, and this is absolutely true.

“Traditional” is, for better or worse, just the first name for Florian Zeller’s play, even though it was written as recently as 2013 (and also made into a film in 2014, with the original title Une Heure de tranquillité).

Wastewater and LP

The good thing is that both the script and the ensemble devote themselves to the pace and logic of the father with body, soul and expertise.

They establish early on what it is that we should laugh at: the lives of a wealthy group of people whose life lies were first maintained and are now exposed because of their own self-absorption – as the sewage leaks out of the pipes in the apartment in an increasing stream, caused by the undeclared craftsman they have chosen to employ.

All while the protagonist Marcus (Max Forsman) would not want to deal with either his wife, son, mistress, neighbor, craftsman or friend Paul, but just sit alone in the pastel-colored living room between the drink cart, the leather sofa, the LP collection and the racing bike and listen to his newly purchased LP rarity “Me, myself and I”.

An unsubtle symbol, similar to the wastewater.

Forsman and Lundberg a successful duo

However, the subtle is not something the production directed by Jaakko Saariluoma is interested in either, instead they have chosen to cream it on without hesitation. The clear brushstrokes are well complemented by Antti Mattila’s pastel scenography and Maria Rosenqvist’s ditto costumes.

Forsman shines the most in the lead role, who, after making me think “he’s a bit exaggerated” in the first act, convinces me in the second act by turning it up even more.

Saariluoma’s direction could have made further use of this register, to give the pace more dynamics and avoid the feeling of stomping on the spot that some parties have.

A well-functioning and important counterbalance to Forsman’s hysteria is Sixten Lundberg’s laconic and steadily timed portrayal of his neighbour Pavel – the only completely innocent victim whose apartment is being destroyed by the family’s inability to deal with their internal problems.

Solid, but not complex

Otherwise, the play does not offer its actors particularly complex roles to portray, but all of them exist largely solely through their relationship with the main character Marcus – an example of the more mossy traditionalism that Zeller’s script also delivers.

His wife Therese (Åsa Wallenius) is consistently nervous and anxious, his mistress Elsa (Pia Runnakko) is sporting indignant anxiety and his friend Paul (Robert Enckell) is evasive and spineless. Everyone performs solidly as such, but a little more nuance wouldn’t have hurt. At times, it feels a bit like watching a local revue.

Fabian Silén, in turn, delivers humorous body language as the craftsman Leo. I’m more confused by Wilhelm Enckell’s character Sebastian – the son who is supposed to be 29, but comes across more as a teenage goth. He definitely attracts laughter, but the announcement becomes somewhat unclear.

Few surprises

For a play that, in the spirit of farce, is based on turning points and confusions, Even’s A Little Calm in the House does not offer any surprises in terms of content. If you are familiar with genre conventions, you almost immediately realize what everyone’s secrets are, so the benefit is clearly in the performance rather than in the script.

What we encounter there is the eternal story of a man who wants to sit and be good enough in peace without having to take responsibility for his relationships with the – in and of itself also self-absorbed, but still alive – people whose lives he has jammed into.

And even if that type is alive and well in society and therefore should definitely be made visible, I would have been very curious to see a slightly more challenging approach to the subject, without having to give up the father’s competence that Lillan clearly possesses.