Review: Kultainen vasikka

It is perhaps premature to declare any of the performances of the theatre autumn to be an event, the most touching experience. I’ll do it anyway, even though there are still many premieres ahead.

The opening play of the Helsinki City Theatre’s small stage, The Golden Calf, is a two-and-a-half-hour experience that I watched in the preview with cold shivers on my skin. Sometimes with tears in my eyes, sometimes with laughter.

The themes of the play, written by Maria Jotun in 1918, are shockingly true and topical. The shortages, speculation and lack of money of the First World War described by the author are not just a thing of the past. They are the moment we are living in. What else are we talking about but money, having it, not having it, its power? Its enslaving power that destroys the joy of life! And we forget that we are here to love, to be to each other. (The same theme of love or lack thereof is dealt with in the play Enigmatic Variations, which premiered at Studio Pasila, as a co-production of five theatres. Its downright detective-like story is supported by Heikki Kinnunen and Ilkka Heiskanen.)

The Golden Calf could have been made dry in the epoch, but the open-minded director Heidi Räsänen does not do that. The interpretation does not abandon Jotun’s language, but it gives the content of the play a very special frenzy and intensity. It can be seen in the acting across the board. There is no weak link in this performance: Vappu Nalbantoglu, Tuukka Leppänen, Heidi Herala, Jari Pehkonen, Helmi-Leena Nummela, Sanna-June Hyde, Rauno Ahonen, Aino Seppo, Ursula Salo and Petrus Kähkönen act with the joy that comes when the team loves their work, knowing that they are at the heart of an important matter. And there we really are.

During the intermission, a viewer wondered about Antti Mattila’s suggestive set. An almost empty stage with thick tree trunks in the background, a single tree crosswise on the floor is a fine image of a war-torn world and the mental vacuum that man finds himself in in the hunt for money and happiness. What about the last stage shot?

Stuff, jewelry, champagne glasses, all the useless things that fill life with.