Review: Humiseva harju
On the humming ridge of the Helsinki City Theatre, wind, rain and storms are blowing. It is where people are born, loved, hated, kicked, scratched, rage, cry, shout, die. The whole picture of a life that is distressing, but at the same time offers opportunities.
The Humming Ridge is Emily Brönte’s only novel. Emily died at the age of 30 from a lung disease. Her sister Charlote’s novel The Governess, along with the Humming Ridge, has been a part of the reading books of many young girls of my generation. The fierce and all-defying love story appealed to the young reader. Now I’m amazed at what I understood from the whole novel.
On director Lauri Maijala’s Humming Ridge, nothing is ordinary. With the help of set designer Katariina Kirjavainen, costume designer Sari Suominen, lighting designer William Iles and sound designer Eradj Nazimov, director Lauri Maijala has built a setting on the big stage where the wild pace of life is simultaneously a magical and very realistic setting. Up and down the skateboard!
Life on the humming ridge – a horrible, dreary house – changes when the father of the family (Matti Ranin) brings a wild boy from his trip to the city, whom the father names after his dead brother. The boy becomes Heathcliff (Markus Järvenpää). The family’s son Hindley (Markku Haussila) can’t stand the newcomer at all. When Hindley hurts and insults Heathcliff, the father does not approve of his son’s behavior, but beats and punishes his son time and time again. An endless cycle is created that does not break. The same man who has wanted to save a little boy from certain death is very violent and scary. Why?
Catherine (Oona Airola) immediately falls in love with Heathcliff. They become an inseparable couple whose interaction can be prevented by nothing. As children grow up, their affection turns into love, which is accepted by the environment at all. Catherine marries according to her status and ends up in a different way in a sick house than her home.
In the humming ridge, only revenge is what holds the men up. Women love, but according to the perception of the environment, always the wrong man. Violent emotions and actions roll from the stage to the auditorium – the ramp built upwards in the middle of the auditorium and the actors “swinging” on it add to the feeling – I am in the middle of it all, one of them.
The performance is very sporty. The actors’ movement and jumping are skilful and deliberate. And in many ways typical of Lauri Maija’s directions. The presence of the actors and their throwing themselves from one situation to another is amazing. Leena Rapola as a servant of Nelly is something completely different from what I have seen in her work before. Amazing, just like playing everyone else.
Oona Airola’s Cathy is sensitive and strong at the same time. The presence and devoted approach of Airola and all the actors to everything is astonishing. Where ravens sometimes threatened everything, director Lauri Maijala could have appeared at the premiere for the final thanks in a magician’s cape and hat. It was so magical and impressive!