Review: Riistapolku
I didn’t know anything about the performance beforehand, and yet it was among my most anticipated, if not the most anticipated, premieres of the autumn. Why? Because the director would be Lauri Maijala and on stage as young lovers Ella Mettänen and Paavo Kinnunen, one of my biggest favorites when it comes to actors. Everything else, including the end result, would be just a bonus. I was already in a receptive state and wanted to be impressed, confused, overwhelmed, serious.
Before the start of the performance, I stared at the somehow disgustingly pale light and my father Erwin (Risto Kaskilahti) lying in bed, who looked strangely waxy and not alive at all. The yellowish-brown color scheme of the set took me straight to the 70s and this time there were no waves of nostalgia, even though we used to have wallpaper and sofa furniture in the same color scale. I got a kind of anxious feeling – one that I can’t even explain. You just feel it. Just an ordinary family in their everyday activities, like a series of photos from years ago. A bit of a stuffy feeling, you could almost smell the cigarette smoke floating in the air, even though there is no smoking in the play. Lights and colors do it.
Mother Hilda (Ursula Salo) and Erwin in their morning activities, and then daughter Hanni (Ella Mettänen) getting ready for school. On the way to school, the girl accidentally (or intentionally?) drops her scarf, which is picked up by Franz (Paavo Kinnunen). Glances and words are exchanged, perhaps they have been following each other with a sideways eye before. Shy getting to know each other and setting up a date despite the fact that there is something to say. Hanni is only 13 years old and Franz is six years older than her. A place of disaster, at least if the parents and especially the father would find out. But no one needs to know, does it?
Love does not hold young people back, not even if they are threatened with the police and on a trip to the castle. We would have to wait many more years for this relationship to be fully accepted. But who can wait for years when love is NOW? It will result in humiliation and eternal shame, namely for the parents. According to the father, even the horrors of the Nazis are small compared to this, and the mother wishes that they would never have had a child if they had known that this was coming. In the middle of all this is Hanni, who just wants to love Franz. What is so wrong about it, what is so difficult to understand?
As the play progresses, the atmosphere intensifies and I think I forget to breathe at times. Shouting, beatings, blood, nasty words. I remember the advertisement for a blender on TV (?), the German Maija Mehiläinen sung by Hanni, the use of the word “daddy” as a disarmer, red feathers, the Costa del Sol and airplanes, slightly rolled knee socks and childlike positions of the legs, the mother waiting and waiting and waiting…
The game trail left me feeling uncomfortable and it was rare in the sense that I still felt that I had seen something unique, ugly and beautiful at the same time. I want to see more of this kind of theatre! It’s usually great to leave the theater with your feet and head in the air from the joy and joy of bubbles, but damn, how great it is to leave the theater serious and with your head a little heavy with thoughts – and yet your heart and soul are full of gratitude that you have seen something completely different and outrageously impressive again. I’m also sure that this will hit me in a few days and bring more to think about later.
Nothing easy to watch, but extremely rewarding! And also great acting. Ella Mettänen in particular is a diamond in the rough and seems to succeed in every role. She acts with an unbelievably sensitive face, all the emotional scales with small nuances and what a use of voice! I am a fan, admire, appreciate.
Which also made me think that I would have liked to see Franz’s friend Dieter (Pekka Huotari) a little more on stage, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. He made a pretty indelible impression with his appearance…