Review: Minä valitsin sinut
I Chose You is a play that depicts the difficulties of relationships, which serves as a cross-section of the private and realistic thoughts that are discussed in all relationships. It is also a work in which everyday life becomes a story depicting an entire time and social upheaval.
The small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre was in constant motion from the very first moments of the play, and the audience was drawn into the story. The anticipatory excitement of the audience at the premiere was replaced by deep silence in an instant when we were transported to Helsinki in the early 2000s.
I Chose You is a novel by Laura Lehtola from 2020. The story, which depicts the relationship between two women, motherhood and the difficulties of all kinds of relationships, flowed forward with a fateful force, just like the relationships depicted in it. It was once again wonderful to see how the inner world of my own reading experience was transferred to the stage.
Lehtola herself dramatised the story into a play with director Milja Sarkola. They edited one documentary online so that Lehtola focused on dialogue and Sarkola on dramaturgy. The end result is a work that respects the spirit and story of the book, in which the arc of a long relationship and the turmoil experienced by sexual minorities in the early 2000s have been successfully condensed into flowing scenes on stage. Sarkola says:
“Laura Lehtola’s novel I Chose You (Otava 2020) was the first novel I read that dealt with this change up close, in an everyday and recognizable way. While reading the novel, I also saw the generational experience of my adulthood vividly and wistfully: “I’ve experienced that too. There I was, too. I didn’t know that either. That’s where I stayed to some extent.”
On the surface, the story is a seemingly mundane depiction of Elisa (Misa Lommi) and Saara (Wenla Reimaluoto) falling in love in a student apartment and the ensuing long relationship and having a child. However, the relationship developed at a time when the rights of rainbow families were questioned even more than they are today, and both women also had various difficulties in fitting their own identities into the molds set by society and society.
The restrained Elisa struggled with motherhood and shame, especially in relation to her own parents, and Saara struggled with becoming rigid in norms. Later, they have a little son, difficulties with everyday life together, and Saara’s relationship with Antti (Pyry Nikkilä), who interviewed her about rainbow families.
The impression was powerful and at the same time somewhat humorous if you thought of it as concretizing the male gaze. The whole play was full of humour. Laughing at a story about minority groups is something where it would be easy to go in the wrong direction, but this play manages to do so in style. It is precisely the bleak reality and the nodes of identities caused by Päivi Räsänen and co. that are something painful for which the need to unravel through humour has been long-awaited.
While watching this play, the audience got to laugh often and the humor was definitely laughing with the community. No laughing at it. Hanna Raiskinmäki, who played many roles, was particularly funny, and she excelled especially in perfectly imitating the mannerisms of a little boy. Unto Nuora in the role of Elisa’s father also managed to capture something essential about such a Finnish man interested in lawnmower engines.
In addition to humorously unraveling painful topics, the play was special because of its pace. K. Rasila’s set design was in constant motion and the scenes rolled in front of the viewer with force. The relationship of the whole story rolled forward and the pace of the scenes described it nicely.
The stage was spinning in circles almost all the time, and the walls and interiors changed so that there seemed to be dark-clad theatre workers constantly moving something around on the stage. It all created a great taste of craftsmanship and a sense of passing time. Emilia Eriksson’s fine choices in costume design also took her from one atmosphere and time to another in a recognizable way. I especially liked the scene in a gay club where drunk women are dancing in identical red flannel shirts. You can laugh at stereotypes when it’s done so warmly.
Specifically the warm-hearted I chose you specifically is. It’s an interesting cross-section of the political change in Finland towards rainbow families, but I can easily recommend the play if you’re just looking for an emotional, funny and narrative performance. Reimaluoto and Lommi shine in their roles and bring a large amount of energy to the stage. More information about the play can be found on the City Theatre’s website here.