Review: Riistapolku
The Game Trail, directed by Lauri Maijala, is built on great acting
On the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, Riistapolku is an excruciatingly powerful, harshly realistic interpretation of a drama classic rarely performed in Finland. The author of the play, German Franz Xaver Kroetz (b. 1946), is known for his strong themes and his plays were particularly popular in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. The play is directed by Lauri Maijala. Riistapolku tells a story based on real-life events and ending in tragedy about unconventional love, unwanted pregnancy and violence.
The play begins as a description of the everyday life of an ordinary family, but as the story progresses, a love story that ends in tragedy takes centre stage. The father of the family, Erwin (Risto Kaskilahti), dreams of a better job, and the mother Hilda (Ursula Salo) dreams of an ordinarily serene family life. 13-year-old daughter Hanni (Ella Mettänen) and 19-year-old Franz (Paavo Kinnunen) fall fatally in love.
In addition to the family tragedy, the Game Trail also has a more social dimension. Erwin’s father is strongly disappointed in the German society of the 1960s. He seems to long for the strong leadership of the National Socialist era, its values and the clarity of the times, instead of the vagueness of democratic West Germany and the new winds of the 1960s. Although the wartime in Erwin’s memories appears as a lost youth, he longs for a clearer order and discipline. These themes also bring Maijala’s direction to the clearly European present and create images of the strengthening right-wing populist currents of the present.
Even if you are not a fan of darker drama, the Helsinki City Theatre’s Game Trail is worth a visit, especially because of the brilliant actors. Their acting and strong presence alone create a palpable overwhelming atmosphere in the performance.
Ella Mettänen plays the role of the young 13-year-old Hanni naturally and unforcedly and, above all, psychologically well-founded. On the one hand, he gets the absoluteness of a precocious adolescent, on the other hand, the harrowing insecurity of a child and the longing for an adult’s arms. Mettänen’s acting emphasizes the depiction of Hanni’s inner world, both uncertain and ultimately defiant in all its tragicness.
Mettänen builds his character with outwardly quite calm, few gestures, but based on an even more intense presence on stage. Samples of the young Ella Mettänen’s skills have been shown, for example, in the Group Theatre’s 9 Good Reasons to Live performance, as well as at Teatteri Jurkka’s Lokki and Niskavuori’s Hetta. Hanni’s role in Riistapolku is the latest proof of Mettänen’s skills and sensitive acting nature.
In Paavo Kinnunen’s hands, 19-year-old Franz turns into a tragicomic young man in love. Kinnunen’s stage charisma and strong typing skills build the character of a successful working-class boy.
Ursula Salo’s mother, Hilda, is worried about her daughter, an oversensitive bearer of responsibility and, on the other hand, a housewife who holds on to an impeccable façade. Salo also manages to vividly depict the shock of the mother’s mind as the tragic events roll forward. Risto Kaskilahti gets a cutting hopelessness in the figure of the father and, on the other hand, conflict with his child, as well as a loving and abusive, confused parent.
The dialogue in Vesa Tapio Valo’s Finnish translation lives naturally in the actors’ mouths. The sparse wording of the text fits well with the world of the work. The dialectal, rough language brings a partly mundane and sometimes tormenting atmosphere to the performance.
In his concise, only one and a half hour interpretation, Lauri Maijala manages to describe in a captivating way the daily routines of a working-class family in a small German town and the unconventional love of the family’s 13-year-old daughter for a 19-year-old young man. Maijala’s directing elements bring tantalizingly tormenting, even dreamlike snapshots to the work. The family’s everyday life is full of repetitive routines; work, school, mornings and meals. Aleksi Saura’s excellent sound design creates a familiar normality in the family’s everyday routines.