Review: Bolla

Bolla is the hottest flag of the autumn

As strange as it may seem, I’ve adapted to the lack of theatre. I calculated that I haven’t been to the theatre for a year. The previous performance of the Helsinki City Theatre, on the other hand, was The Humming Ridge a year and a half ago.

So I haven’t had any great experiences in Helsinki’s theatres for a long time, even before the coronavirus pandemic. This is probably partly due to my own mentality, but also, of course, to the performances. Then came Bolla.

A couple of years ago, author Pajtim Statovci was awarded the Finlandia Prize for his novel of the same name. Bolla tells the love story of an Albanian and a Serb in war-torn Kosovo. Arsim is married, trying to support his wife and children, while the sensitive Miloš is studying to become a surgeon.

Love between men is a risk in the late 1990s, which is not helped by the constant state of war. The world of Arsim and Miloš is crumbling, common and personal, at the same time as their country.

The story is universal, but director Milja Sarkola has directed it to be very intimate. The end result is a touching play. As my friend warned me beforehand, Bolla is one of the best plays that has been seen at the Helsinki City Theatre in recent years. The last time I remember being as excited was about Paavo Westerberg’s The Price, which was three and a half years ago.

Bolla describes love honestly, mainly from Arsim’s point of view. The solution is successful, because Arsim is more interesting than Miloš’s character. Although the latter takes on more tones towards the end of the play, Arsim is interesting in all its complexity. The character is human because it is so imperfect and crippled.

Arsim has two sides, one of which only appears with Miloš. The other side is gloomy: the shadow side is mainly only evident in situations when Miloš is not present. Eventually, however, the viewer gets to know Arsim – he is a lost man hung up in the past, who eventually puts himself before everything else. Maybe.

Sarkola gives the actors space to act, which brings a sense of airiness to the entire work. Samuli Niittymäki and Mikko Kauppila shine in Bolla’s challenging and fascinating lead roles, but the excellent Otto Rokka or Ursula Salo are not overshadowed by them.

Jouko Klemettilä is one of Finland’s finest actors, and it is a great pleasure to see him in serious drama. Not many actors can do the same: Klemettilä does his job so well in every role – in the opening scene, he is seen as a waitress who scratches dirt from the café table, cleans them with his rag and changes the place of the chair. The attention is always on her, which speaks of solid charisma.

The performance would have felt fake if the viewer had not believed that they were in the middle of the action. For example, the Finnish National Theatre’s All About My Mother didn’t seem to be happening where it should. It felt like a ball . It speaks of the success of the entire working group, not least Statovci’s fine original work and Tuomas Timonen’s successful adaptation.

So far, it seems that all of Bolla’s performances are sold out. However, it is probably worth keeping an eye on the situation and trying to see the performance, which is undoubtedly one of the biggest theatre events of the autumn.