Review: Humiseva harju
The humming ridge – the rebirth of a classic @HKT
Last year’s Finlandia Prize winner Pajtim Statovci sat in a couple of rows in front of me at the premiere of The Humming Ridge at the Helsinki City Theatre on 30 January 2020. After the performance ended, she wrote on her Instagram Story: “Speechless”.
I can say the same. It is difficult to put into words such a strong emotional state that The Humming Ridge, directed by Lauri Maijala, left behind. It’s far too plush to say that the performance was impressive and fierce and amazing and different and touching, because its intensity came from deep in the mind.
Emily Brontë (1818-1848) wrote The Humming Ridge in 1847 and it remained her only novel. The events of the book deal with the events of three generations, but the Scottish playwright Jo Clifford’s version at the City Theatre is limited to the core story, the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff.
The humming ridge is a classic, so many viewers, including me, have a picture of the story in advance. It’s challenging to bring a new angle to a classic and it’s great when you succeed. The Helsinki City Theatre’s Humming Ridge is faithful to the original moorland world, but is able to carry the play’s themes to timelessness.
The performance begins quietly. A young boy is crawling around the rows of seats with a cup in his hand, barefoot, dirty and ragged, begging for pennies from the spectators. He (Markus Järvenpää) looks seriously into the eyes and begs. Most of the audience doesn’t notice anything, they are still talking to their own, with a glass of champagne on their cheeks. The beggar boy is invisible to many, just like the beggars moving among us now.
In the play, the boy has been noticed. Mr. Earnshaw (Matti Olavi Ranin) has picked her up in Liverpool among many people in need of help and decided to bring her home to the Humming Ridge. On the way, he named him Heathcliff after his deceased firstborn son. In the home in the middle of the moors, their own son Hindley (Markku Haussila), daughter Catherine (Oona Airola) and assistant Nelly (Leena Rapola) are waiting.
The poor devil has not received any love. We will tame him, he will become a good Christian.” – Mr. Earnshaw
Heathcliff is different, dark and shaggy. Hindley immediately dislikes Heathcliff, jealous of his special position in his father’s eyes. Nelly also looks at Heathcliff with disdain. But then there is an approving gaze, the curious gaze of wild Cathy. Cathy and Heathcliff are like a butt and a shirt, reading each other, supporting each other. In the words of Lauri Maijala: “Cathy and Heathcliff are yin and yang, light and shadow – life and death, lost from each other.”
I know where the hell is. It’s where you’re not.” – Heathcliff Cathylle
Oh, how nicely these emotions are brought out on stage. Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship is one of frolicking, scurrying, wrestling, dancing, leaning, pressing their heads against each other. For them, the moor is freedom and open heaven, also a space where they, from different backgrounds, can be together. The stage has the top of the moor, and the auditorium is divided by a metal ramp. Oona Airola and Markus Järvenpää move back and forth, around and together, throwing themselves into sweat and most certainly bruises. Unbelievable energy and the art of movement! They do all this without losing anything of their expressive ability!
The humming ridge is cold, lung disease and discipline. In the midst of all the misery, there are moments that go straight to the heart. When Matti Olavi Ranin speaks to a death monologue while sitting on a coffin, or Markku Haussila plays the saw as if he were cutting his bad feelings. When labor ends in death and death walks like Hindley’s shadow… These could be listed more.
In the first half, the colors are dark and earthy, the gloom of the humming ridge shines even from the tin plates. When Hindley returns from London or when Cathy and Heathcliff go on an expedition to the neighboring house, the world begins to turn into a pastel delicate.
Cold, lung disease and discipline – there is plenty of everything. When things don’t go his way, he brings up the strap. When things don’t go his way, he takes the whip. When there is discord, there are threats, subjugation, humiliation and beatings. There is a power struggle going on all the time. We say sorry out of necessity, but revenge, terrible revenge, arises in our minds.
“God doesn’t enjoy vengeance as much as I do.” – Heathcliff
The good and affectionate that there was between Cathy and Heathcliff in childhood is left aside as they grow up. The realities of life come into play. Cathy, the daughter of the house, cannot marry Heathcliff, who lives in the barn of the house, no matter how strong their chemistry is. The story is set in the late 1700s, when Hindley as Cathy’s guardian would have at least thrown Cathy out if he hadn’t killed her. Cathy makes a sensible decision.
You were told that I am evil. It’s true.” – Heathcliff to Isabella
Heathcliff makes his own decision guided by strong motivation. If he were rich too, he would be good enough. And oddly enough, it works in other ways, except in relation to Cathy. What is broken cannot be repaired with money. With a heart in the flesh, it is investigated who has hurt the other more and how to return to that childhood harmony. Both are clever at hurting the people around them, who end up in the line of fire between the two of them. It takes lung disease and death before yin and yang meet again.
The second half of Humming Ridge is stylistically like something out of another play. The enormous intensity of the beginning eases, there is air on the big stage, but people feel even worse than in the beginning, if possible. The set design has moved to the Linton manor and to the present day. The lightness of the Lintons is cotton candy-like nonsense. Edgar Linton (Martti Manninen) is a kind man, but Cathy doesn’t know how to appreciate that. Oona Airola wonderfully interprets the dilution of Cathy’s powder keg. When there is no fire to light it, the gunpowder no longer crackles. In this environment, Cathy is a guest in her own home. His life is sleeping, half-dead.
Fortunately, there is one rational soul in this house and it lives in my body.” – Nelly
As a viewer, it’s easy to agree with Nelly. If you have hoped for a miracle and a happy ending in the beginning – even though you have known the course of the original story – then there is no hope as events unfold. It’s too late, everyone feels sick. The starting points have been difficult, there has been no love and security. Those holes do not grow into happy adults.
So come as a ghost. Don’t leave me alone in this desolate world.” – Heathcliff
Moving the events to a modern-day environment makes you think about how the world has changed since Emily Brontë’s time. Violence is inherited, lovelessness breaks and revenge does not bring relief. A small social message travels with you. Already at the beginning, it is stated that Liverpool is too big, no one takes care of each other. Industrialization is on the rise, a rebellion is smoldering. On stage, an automatic vacuum cleaner is making Nelli unemployed.
The main couple of humming ridges do an impressive job. When Oona Airola and Markus Järvenpää say the classic lines “I am Cathy” and “I am Heathcliff”, it feels like they could not be uttered by more real people. They are equal to each other on good days as well as in the cycle of revenge. Oona Airola is almost confusing in her multidimensionality, she has plenty of expressive skills and it stays on just the right scale.
As the Hindley brother, Markku Haussila is an interpreter of a wide range of emotions. His role jumps from mischief to alcoholism, forever craving his father’s approval. His solo singing is touching, but it felt like it was in the wrong play. As such, the music composed and accompanied by Mikko Helenius played an atmospheric role in the performance. When he played the opening bars of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, I understood for the first time how hard the song was. When I was young, I didn’t even know how to connect it to this story.
The Humming Ridge is a profound performance that gives a lot to think about. Although it is dark and fierce, it is not repulsive or frightening. Ville Koskivaara’s Finnish translation is brilliant, many of the classic sentences in the book are excellently adapted to modern language. There are also many passages in the performance that cannot be watched without smiling.
I recommend the Humming Ridge to both those who know the story of the classic and those who are not familiar with it. Humming Ridge is a strong theatre that is unlikely to leave anyone cold. I say BRAVO!