Review: Bolla

BOLLA IS INTENSE ON STAGE

I’m excited in advance to see how Pajtim Statovci’s multi-layered work Bolla will turn to the theatre stage, how the author’s colourful language will come alive on stage. It’s been so little time since I read the book, and I liked it very much, so I’m especially sensitive to dips.

Tuomas Timonen’s adaptation of the play is a clear whole of the book’s multi-generational plot. As a viewer, I feel that I am firmly involved in the twists and turns of events. Milja Sarkola’s direction squeezes the painful essence to the surface.

The events take place in Kosovo, between 1995 and 2004. Political conflicts are intertwined with people’s personal everyday lives and affect everyone’s choices. The impossible love of the two men is at the centre, with the married Albanian Arsim and the Serbian Miloš, but the inflamed situation on the Balkan Peninsula creates an atmosphere that stretches the theme of love further. Whose love is the strongest and fairest? What kind of solutions are humane and which are just lust? What is right or wrong?

The characters go from one checkpoint to another, solving problems that come their way. The timidly developing love between Samuli Niittymäki’s Arsim and Mikko Kauppila’s Miloš is beautiful and their intimate encounter is natural. Arsim and his wife and children are forced to leave Kosovo, while Milos stays there to fight. The post-war reunion at the end of the play is the moment when everything is weighed.

Arsim’s wife, Ajshe (Jessica Grabowsky), is humble and submissive, but surprisingly, in the end, she has an invisible tenacity that carries through the fractures. Jouko Klemettilä and Ursula Salo work on many people related to the lives of the main couple, transforming nicely into different roles.

The stage image is sparse and tells us where we are and where we are going. It gives space to what is happening in the background, both visible and left to be anticipated. Kaisa Rasila’s set design offers only the wall structure with openings, a few chairs and beds. From that condensation, the characters in the play have to struggle to follow the paths they have chosen.

Throughout the performance, Aleksi Saura’s music and soundscape are the elements that I paid the most attention to. It’s like Statovci’s tonal language in the book, as his subtle nuances disappear in the dialogue. And it’s like one role on stage, the clashes of culture, and also the mindscape of the characters, the devil, the bolla. And all this without getting into the lead role, but by sneaking their sonic tentacles everywhere.