Review: Riistapolku
When the performance of Riistapolku on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre is over, I am speechless. I don’t know right away what else to say other than that the performance is tough, really tough.
The Game Trail is a fierce and profound story that Lauri Maijala has directed into a compact one without any pointing gestures. It allows the viewer to throw themselves into the story and their own interpretations. The Game Trail speaks to people privately and socially. The events take place in the early 1970s, but the themes were still topical.
The text of the Game Trail is based on real events that the German Franz Xaver Kroetzin wrote in 1971 as a play. Kroetz was 21 years old at the time. After Riistapolku, he has written numerous plays, novels and poetry, as well as acted and directed his own plays. Kroetz has received several awards for his work, including the Bertolt Brecht Prize for Literature and the German Federal Order of Honor.
As a background, Rainer Werner Fassbinder has made a TV movie about the Game Trail (Wildwechsel, 1972).
The performance begins in a magical light, as if you were watching a black-and-white television program. Risto Kaskilahti , who plays the father, sleeps in a double bed on stage and looks like a yellow-pale mummy. Ursula Salo , who plays the mother, comes into the picture with curlers on her head, as does Ella Mettänen, who plays the 13-year-old daughter. It’s a small family’s morning chores, where the colors only hit when Hanni puts on a green half-skirt to go to school.
In the next scene, a decisive step takes place. On the way to school, a small scarf falls from Hanni to the ground, which is picked up by Paavo Kinnunen , who plays Franz. First a kiss, then a promise of a tongue kiss, soon we are dating. The problem is that Hanni is 13 years old and Franz is 19 years old. Their love is illegal. (The age of consent is currently 16 years in Finland, 14 years in Germany.)
Soon the police visit Hanni’s home and the parents learn about the affair. An interesting phase begins: whose fault is the relationship? The father makes desperate accusations, which of course target the mother, who should have watched where her daughter is. Eventually, Hitler is also needed for help, because during National Socialism, his daughter would have been safe. The father states that he would not have cared about the fate of the 100,000 Jews if his own daughter had been spared.
Franz ends up in prison and Hanni’s parents try to threaten what will happen if the young people meet again. Franz would have to spend years in prison.
But the love of young people is intense. Hanni is not in the position of an underdog, but an active participant in the relationship. Dad is already calling him a and promises to dig out his shotgun if Franz is seen.
The twists and turns of the story grow towards the end and it is painful to watch as a mother of daughters. What can happen. It doesn’t help much, even though, like the mother in the play, she always remembers to shout when her daughter goes out: “Be careful!”
The City Theatre’s implementation is stunning. Not a single unnecessary movement, but all controlled and strong expression. I saw the open rehearsals of the play in early August, and at least the scene rehearsed at that time had gone into great depth. The text is of course concise, but so has Lauri Maijala’s direction.
And what about the actors – bravo to the whole ensemble! His parents, Ursula Salo and Risto Kaskilahti, seem genuine to the point of blood. They exude the pain when you lose your grip on what your child is doing. When words don’t work, and neither do sturdier weapons. In the beginning, the mother is the typically strict one and the daughter wraps the father’s little finger around her. As the situation progresses, the mother becomes more understanding, until even that reaches the limit.
Young lovers are just as naïve as teenagers can be. Ella Mettänen is a slightly defiant teenager in her gestures and demeanor, for whom the whole relationship seems to be more exciting than a great fire of emotion, even though she claims so. Ella’s role doesn’t drop for a second, but she skillfully keeps every expression and gesture at the level of a 13-year-old, whose emotional scale fluctuates between a child and a little tough.
Franz, played by Paavo Kinnunen, is a serious and simple young man for whom the city lights turn out to be too bright. Paavo pulls off the role believably and respectfully for the character, without slipping into excess. Franz’s world is also told by his best friend Dieter (Pekka Huotari), who is not the sharpest pencil in the pencil case either. Still, he also warns of the consequences of continuing the relationship.
Riistapolku is excellent theatre, just over an hour and a half without intermission. Unfortunately, the Auditorium was half empty, so act quickly, because this performance should not be missed by a fan of spoken theatre!
I would also like to praise Antti Mattila’s set design, which was 50 shades of brown. It’s hard to imagine anything more stale. The lighting and use of sounds were also very skillful, Kari Leppälä and Aleksi Saura are responsible for them. The costumes were horrible, that is, skillful, but the late 1960s and early 1970s with their padded dressing gowns and vest skirts were just pretty ugly to today’s eyes. Costumes are by Elina Kolehmainen. A real trip of nostalgia was to see the set of Willy Brandt smoking a cigarette on a TV talk show.