Review: Hinta

Review of the Helsinki City Theatre’s performance of Hinta: What does a second-hand life cost?

Already when I settle down on the small side of the City Theatre, my attention is drawn to the stage image. Not only because there is a lot of junk on the stage, but also because of the shape and positioning of the stage in relation to the stands: déjà vu! In director Paavo Westerberg’s previous work, the play “The Next 500 Years”, which was performed at the Espoo City Theatre in the autumn, the stage was in the same position. As if pushing with one corner into the middle of the stands. Now dividing, but also bringing the characters on stage closer together.

In Espoo, the stage was empty of stuff, it was filled with speeches by three actors, and the set was set by wide light surfaces. On the stage of the City Theatre, the attic room interior created by Antti Mattila is filled with large piles of furniture. And speech.

Even after the play begins, the mountains of furniture catch the eye and admittedly steal a little attention from the dialogue. The gaze digs into the piles and picks up details from the mass, such as different chair models. The thought escapes, I find myself counting how many styles are represented and how many different tables are at the bottom of the pile. Of course, I also find myself wondering what these dicks tell or will tell about the main characters of the play. About how they have lived before everything collapsed in the 1929 stock market crash.

The appeal of the movable property dissipates as the discussion flowing on stage becomes more intense and its content sharpens from the general bargaining chase to a more personal and mask-stripping character character. When the dialogue really gets going after the first twenty minutes of warm-up, it doesn’t let go of its grip during the three-hour play.

Many prices, cheap and expensive

Arthur Miller’s play The Price premiered on Broadway in 1968, almost 20 years after his most famous play “The Death of a Merchant”, but it can still be seen as a sister work to that classic. Both examine what greed for financial success does to people.

The price has received very little attention in Finnish theatres: it has been seen in Finnish professional theatres less than ten times since 1968, while the commercial traveller Willy Loman has taken to the stage more than 40 times since his premiere in the 1950s (the predecessor of the City Theatre, the Helsinki People’s Theatre).

The title of the play points in many directions. At its most concrete, it is the rather modest sum for which Victor Franz, who sells the movables of his childhood home, is willing to make a deal with an old Jewish merchant. On another, more serious level, it is about the price that Victor has had to pay after being left to care for his father, who lost his fortune in the stock market crash; That decision has prevented him from completing his studies and getting a proper profession. Victor’s wife would also like to know the price, as she has always wanted a more ostentatious setting for her life than Victor has been able to arrange with his police salary.

The highest price has been paid in the rift between Victor and his brother Walter: 16 years without contact due to Walter’s unwillingness to help financially when his brother and his father were tormented almost by starvation.

In this way, Miller’s play has been built into a series of tightly intertwined price summer conversations. First, Victor and his wife Esther ponder the possibilities of a wider life, then Solomon, a merchant, enters the picture, with whom they bargain on a practical level over a lump sum for which the entire movable property could be sold, and on a more imaginary level, about the value of memories, family history. Eight thousand bucks, that’s the price.

After the intermission, Walter enters the scene, for whom 8000 dollars is okay and he is not even interested in taking part in it. But he begins to gnaw away at the already agreed deal by thinking about how more, much more, could be extracted from the realisation of the family estate. This leads to the point where Esther argues about the price, Solomon defends his offer, Victor wants to get rid of the whole situation, and Walter alternately agrees, sometimes questions things as if in a dialogue between a devil and an angel…

When the play reaches its long climax, the settling of the relationship between Victor and Walter and the dismantling of all the old pent-ups, money, goods, any purchase price is no longer the main thing. Now it’s about the price of life and the lie of life. About who has paid which bill in that process.

Dialogue with a permanent charge

Paavo Westerberg is in his element as a director in these eloquent dramas, whether they are written by him, such as “Possible Maauilmat” (2016) at the Finnish National Theatre and Espoo’s Next 500 Years last autumn, or classics such as the National Theatre’s “Uncle Vanya” (2014) and now this Price. The director trusts the text and his actors to process it. He allows the dialogue to remain in focus at all times, does not fade it with vicarious actions, does not drown the core lines in the soundscape of simultaneity, shouts and dims in a controlled manner.

In this way, the characters in the play Price remain charged all the time, even though Miller’s text admittedly gets a little stuck as Walter and Victor retrospectively seek justification for their own decisions.

The plays listed above directed by Westerberg over the past four years are also united by the fact that Eero Aho has played a central role in all of them. This time, he only jumps into the ring for the second half, but then takes the stage with his presence for about an hour and a quarter. The role is rewarding, as Aho gets to challenge everyone else in turn. His Victor is a proper opportunist, who tries to persuade people to his side with both good and evil, or at least with harshness. Victor also keeps his own façade bright for a long time, but when the crack comes…

It’s nice to see Santeri Kinnunen in proper drama work after many comedic roles. Walter is a powerfully performed role that is not weighed down by comedy mannerisms.

It’s also great to see Aino Seppo in a proper role after a long time. After all, during Asko Sarkola’s directorship, his talents were wasted in less important supporting roles. Esther is portrayed in a wonderful dualistic way: there is humility and flair in a rollercoaster-like rhythm.

Solomon in Miller’s text is quite a stereotype of a greedy Jewish businessman, but with Esko Salminen’s charisma, the character loses both ethnic and character baggage. What remains is a sadly humorous character who has not only an advanced business instinct but also a heart. However, his brokerage skills are no longer enough when the Franz brothers’ Big Division gets underway.