Review: Bolla

Bolla, Bolla, Bolla – a play with three magnificent lead roles

Bolla’s first stage adaptation premiered on 2 September 2021 on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre. The play, dramatised by Tuomas Timonen , is directed by Milja Sarkola.

Pajtim Statovci’s third novel, Bolla, is an impressive book about love and its impossible. Pajtim was awarded the Finlandia Prize for Bolla in 2019 and has now been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize (to be decided in November 2021). Bolla has already been released in Norway, followed by at least Sweden, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and England.

In our previous articles, we have praised Pajtim Statovci’s language, cinematography, multidimensionality and the strength of storytelling. Pajtim’s debut book, My Cat Yugoslavia, was recently published in 2014 as a book for our reading circle, and since then, some of the members of the reading group have declared themselves Pajtim fans.

You can read Bolla’s core story in our blog article, but in summary, it tells a love story between two men that is inappropriate in many ways. In addition to the fact that one of the men is married to a woman and is about to become a father, he is Albanian and the other man is Serbian. The war in Kosovo is just about to start between these peoples. In the play, the story of the men is also followed to the post-war period.

From book to play

Expectations for Bolla’s play were high. On the other hand, I was a little scared, because high expectations are often followed by disappointment. It had already been a little over a week since the premiere of Bolla , when Martti and I headed towards the small stage of the City Theatre.

For the first few minutes of the play, I was skeptical. I remembered so well the tension created by the text of the book and my image of the Albanian Arsim, a married literature student, and Miloš, a medical student. How in the book, the first meeting of young men in a café was described exceptionally beautifully, and now on stage the situation progressed quite straightforwardly. But very soon the text of the book faded from my mind and I let the play take me.

An amazing core trio

Arsim (Samuli Niittymäki), Miloš (Mikko Kauppila) and Arsim’s wife Ajshe (Jessica Grabowsky) come to life on stage. I’m really delighted with the strong role of Ajshe in the play, as she is the one whose voice I especially wanted to hear in the story, and Jessica Grabowsky’s interpretation is really nuanced and skillful.

When I surrendered to the play, I think the whole thing worked brilliantly. The main trio’s performances were amazing, so believable, so strong and impressive! I thought I hadn’t seen any of the trio on stage before, but it turned out that Samuli Niittymäki had also been in the Three Sisters of the Finnish National Theatre, which I admired.

Intimate and intense

“In my opinion, the most interesting thing about Bolla is the depiction of human contradictions. How the same person can be very cruel, brutal and violent in cramped conditions, but still loving and affectionate.” Bolla’s director Milja Sarkola

The revolving stage rolled scene after scene in front of our eyes with such intensity that I was sorry when it was time for the intermission. I would have liked to stay in the emotional state created by the story, and not go to the foyer to eat chocolate muffins. I thought that this is the kind of theatre I love, theatre where every word and gesture counts. Theatre that detaches from everyday life and takes us to experience a different, credible world through the means of performing arts.

The second half introduced new situations, in new environments. You just can’t let go of the past, the ball is in power. Bolla by definition means an outside, invisible beast, a ghost, a snake-like creature. Bolla haunts both Arsim and Miloš, the pain exudes from the stage, and it is highlighted in the twists and turns of the Balkan folklore, which is read to children from generation to generation. Ajshe rises from her role as a quiet wife, seeks solutions, and finally sees her own light.

Comments from the audience

“I listened to the book again just before the preview screening of Bolla. The novel was just as strong an experience as the first time and opened up a little more, although it will surely take another reading. The stage adaptation is faithful to the book and mainly sticks to illustrating it, fortunately also reaching the most important thing. The novel is great, and the theatre evening was breathtakingly wonderful for me. On stage in Bolla, brilliant actors of the young generation get to show their claws. The skilfully adaptable Otto Rokka and the experienced veterans Ursula Salo and Jouko Klemettilä worked hard in the role changes and framed the central characters successfully.”

Minna Väisälä, 1.9.2021 after the preview screening

“Bolla was a celebration of three young actors. Absolutely gorgeous, perfect performances – impressive theatre! Arsim and Miloš’s relationship starts with physical contact, sex and only then grows into love. It was a good choice to deal with physicality right from the start, so we didn’t have to go back to it, but could focus more on the mental side of the relationship. Dramaturg Tuomas Timonen had succeeded excellently in bringing the core of the book to the stage. For me, this was a five-star play.”

Martti Ranin, 10.9.2021 after the screening

Strong recommendation

As we drove home past the Helsinki railway station, we were amazed at the crowd on Friday evening. Two dark men in their thirties jumped in front of our car, even though they had a red traffic light on. Suddenly there was a play in the street: these could be Arsim’s sons or those over there who stood in a circle in front of the station doors. What has the war left in them, how does an outsider like Bolla affect them? Where are their mothers and fathers and what has happened to their dreams?

Despite all the social message and interpretation, the main memory I had of the play was what Miloš says in the play:

“Do you ever wonder what you and I could have become? How happy we could have been, – in another time, in another time.”

Ifs and buts are not worth it in life, the past is the past. You should also not miss the opportunity to go to the Helsinki City Theatre to see Bolla. I dare to predict that Pajtim Statovci’s book will become a classic, but it is not worth thinking about it, but throwing yourself into the enjoyable flow of Milja Sarkola’s essential pick-up direction.