Review: Ei kertonut katuvansa
Irene, Queen of the Wilderness, 5 Women’s Road Trip
Irene, the queen of the wilderness, a road trip for 5 women. Ei Kertonud Regrets, which premiered at the Helsinki City Theatre on Thursday 9 February 2023, continues the City Theatre’s repertoire of telling stories from outside the patriarchy. In the story of the Power Five, the main characters find themselves in a tight spot, when the fight for life and death can begin.
Literally.
Life is strangely structured in the sense that chance or fate has its fingers in the game. People who are already strangers suddenly find themselves in the same situation, and the only possible way to continue life is on your own feet.
In this text, I will go through the most memorable details of the premiere. The atmosphere in the theatre was warm, the audience was almost full and the applause at the end was long.
Ei kerto regretta is a stage work based on Tommi Kinnunen’s novel, which director Susanna Airaksinen has made a stage version of. The dramaturg in the work is Henna Piirto.
Detailed presentation information can be found here: https://hkt.fi/esitykset/ei-kertonut-katuvansa/
The language heard in the play, i.e. the replication, is beautiful and fresh. The text is written in a way that takes on its own sound and rhythm when it moves on stage. Kinnunen’s way of writing is also suitable for the play, as the diversity of the word choices caught my ear, in a good way.
The set design is by Vilma Mattila. The large stage of the Helsinki City Theatre opens up into a vast wilderness, a battlefield and, for example, a flowing river that must be crossed with little effort. The evocative shadow images, which sometimes resembled a painting thanks to the large illuminated back wall, aptly described the mental landscape of the five.
The pyro effects are the handiwork of Markku Ahonen and a big thank you to him for the spectacular tricks that are seen in the performance. I was a little nervous about what I could find in front of the front row…
Milja Mensonen, who is responsible for the design of the camouflage, and her team have conjured up fancy wigs for the performers, which will take on a completely new shape at the beginning. The actors have also been nicely taught to handle the pins discreetly while the hair is shaved off with a machine. I sat right in front of the actors and got to watch the action very closely.
Irene, the Queen of the Wilderness, or No Regrets About It, takes the audience on a journey where the past of the characters is only slightly explored
When a stage version of a novel is dramatised, there is a risk of how successful it is to edit the long text in such a way that the characters’ lives are sufficiently illuminated for the viewer.
He didn’t say that he regrets it, he walks on the lines of whether too little was said about women. Conveying the stories of the five main characters on the stage of the theatre in a relatable way is a challenge in which some characters remain distant and alien. It also brings a certain sense of urgency to the performance, where the viewer is given superficial background information about each person, but it does not hit the soul.
The actors do their best to interpret the characters’ lives as accurately as possible. Heidi Herala does an impressive role with a professional touch as Irene, who finally starts to walk her own path and is held accountable for her actions. He does it his own way…
Veera, played by Ursula Salo , walks by Irene’s side almost until the end, until their paths diverge as angularly as they did at the beginning. Salo’s character change from the beginning to the end of the performance is powerful and clear.
Aili, played by Aino Seppo, has a tragic fate, but her performance hits somewhere really deep inside the viewer.
The five also include Lumi Aunio and Seidi Haarla. Their stories in the play are also very tragic, and the future for them is left to the imagination of the audience.
The quintet is supported by a large ensemble that is involved in many different tasks. With their help, the stage images change and situations are rolled forward through them.
An additional challenge for everyone is the multi-directional stage, its many different levels and floor hatches. Special mention for the glitter on the floor!
The music gave the performance a special road-trip atmosphere
The composition and sound design of the performance has been done by Johanna Puuperä, whose multidimensional soundscape brings a great atmosphere to support the progress of the performance. In addition, thank you for the sufficient level of sound pressure!
At times, delicate and gentle voices passed behind the audience and strengthened the connection to the action of the stage. The band, which was on stage almost all the time, was led by Eeva Koivusalo on bass, Sami Koskela on drums and Vesa Anttila on guitar.Their presence strongly reminded me of the wartime entertainment troops, and the wired sounds brought something rough and distorted to the actors’ work.