Review: Hinta
Price / Helsinki City Theatre
All that remains of the life lived is a miscellaneous pile of different furniture. Dozens of chairs, a massive cabinet, tables, chests of drawers, a harp. In the middle of it all, a fifty-year-old police officer Victor Franz (Santeri Kinnunen) with his wife Esther (Aino Seppo). Enough time has passed since my father’s death, now we could finally let go of the past once and for all and make good money with my father’s estate. To start one’s own life from scratch, as it were, on a more financially stable basis. Victor also has a brother, a successful doctor Walter (Eero Aho), about whom nothing has been heard for years and probably never will. There has been no response to contact requests, so we have to act alone.
In the middle of the piles of goods, an elderly antique dealer Gregory Solomon (Esko Salminen) bursts out with his last strength. When the breath has stabilized, an interesting and even hilarious trade from the past begins, with its goods, memories and choices, which have had a decisive impact on the lives of many people. Victor wants to get straight to the point, while Gregory is a so-called. old covenant merchants and goes around and curves. An incredible guy! The man’s appearance is deceiving. You can’t just survive this deal, and just as the banknotes are about to be put down in the palm of your hand, events take a new turn. Brother Walter walks through the door as if no years had passed in between, as other men. There is a smoldering under the surface, you can sense it from the looks and gestures, even though the conversation flows very familiarly at first. Soon it will rumble.
A dramatic change in light makes people age in the eyes, all the lines on the face are highlighted and the shadows deepen both in the facial features and on the walls. Many also get a little scary features. The soundscape is also fascinating. It feels as if time has stopped in this one room, and the noise of traffic outside surprises you. Somewhere out there, life goes on, but here the air is thick with words and sentences that you don’t want to hear – or that you would have liked to hear years ago. However, it is not possible to return to the past and choose otherwise. The silence stops you in your tracks. You can almost hear the clock ticking somewhere on the wall. Blood murmur in the veins. There are thoughts in your head that you can’t put into words. Just when I think I know what will happen next, the story takes a new direction. Devilishly addictive!
It feels as if time stands still in the theatre hall as well. Three hours goes by and it swings. After all, this is an almost perfect theatrical pleasure, and what a crowd on stage! While Solomon twirls his customer like a cunning old fox on the limits of patience, Esko Salminen keeps the entire audience in his grip. All those egg-eating and oranges too.
I’ve often grieved over the fact that I’m an only child. On the other hand, I’m happy that I don’t have siblings. No one knows how to hurt me as badly as my own brother or sister, who knows my darkest secrets. Of course, I could be wrong. In the end, this play left me with an excitingly empty and melancholy feeling, a devilish laugh echoing in my head on the darkening stage. Phew. Definitely one of the gems of the theatre spring and the hardest drama I’ve seen in a long time.
It has been 50 years since the play premiered in New York. Still, this could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. It has happened, it is happening, it will happen.