Review: Sinun, Margot

Yours, Margot – A play based on a best-selling book is a shocking experience

Helsinki City Theatre gives its best in the play Sinun, Margot , which is a depiction of the GDR and the search for the past based on the novel by Meri Valkama . The pieces that fall together create something unforgettable.

What a theatrical experience! The main stage of the Helsinki City Theatre embraces Meri Valkama’s masterpiece Sinun, Margot, which is downright shockingly good when dramatised by Tuomas Timonen. Even the beginning of the play is probably the most arresting I’ve ever seen.

Vilja Siltanen’s (Satu Tuuli Karhu) father, Markus Siltanen (Martin Bahne), has died, and while cleaning up the estate, Vilja comes across letters sent to Erich by the pseudonym Margot. Gradually, it turns out that it is his father’s East German lover (Sara Soulié). This is the beginning of the intertwining of the past and the present, a journey to Berlin and childhood East Germany, where Vilja’s father worked and the family lived in the 1980s. Slowly, it becomes clear what role “Margot” aka Luise Seidel has had in Vilja’s life and in all the rootlessness and distance that she experiences above all in her relationships. How to understand the present if you don’t know your past?

Director Riikka Oksanen has made great plays in which women can be seen before, and this time the main focus is on the main trio of Vilja, Luise and Vilja’s mother Rosa Siltanen (Sanna-June Hyde). How they struggle in a situation where they have limited opportunities to influence the course of things, and eventually find their own way. The characters in the play make mistakes, and for many, one of the worst was believing in a flawed system. That collapse of faith is perhaps best shown by the fourth woman, Anne Stern (Vuokko Hovatta), who ends up leading tourist tours in the Chernobyl disaster area. The dance of a small person in the machine is performed a few times, even literally, whether it is the dance of lovers or a short solo spurt by Lasse Lipponen, who plays several roles.

The actors are excellent throughout, especially Karhu and Soulié in their great range of emotions and pain, but this time I especially remember the experience and feeling that was created by the whole in the audience. The past and the present overlap on stage almost literally. The whole is also a triumph for Riikka Oksanen, who is responsible for the dramaturgy of the performance, and I dare say that the experience seasoned with theatrical magic surpasses even the original work. Many scenes are memorable not only because of their content, but also because of their wonderful execution. The power of theatre can be seen, for example, in the Chernobyl section, where a touching thing in itself becomes an absolutely earth-shattering experience. The reason is not only the way it is told, but also how it is displayed.

Antti Mattila’s set design is, in a word, great. The frames embodying DDR architecture move smoothly on stage, as do the walls and mesh fences reminiscent of the cruel side of reality, which are highlighted by the lighting. You can also take people to the site with small details, such as the Ampelmann, a traffic light figure originally from East Germany. Historical video clips are viewed on screens that disintegrate into a mosaic, showing only part of the truth, just like the historiography shaped by the winners.

The Trabant car, also an icon of East Germany, is not only part of the scene, but also a source of light. Toni Haaranen’s lighting design was especially memorable for the atmospheric street and disco lights and, of course, the toxic green glow of the nuclear accident. Sound designer Eradj Nazimov enlivens East Germany’s moments of happiness with gentle pop songs.

The perspective created by Meri Valkama in her novel is new and human-centred. He wants to highlight the good things he experienced in his childhood in the GDR and the memories that the locals had. The outfits designed by Tiina Kaukanen are stunning and also challenge the idea of the GDR as a haven of greyness. The decision to color the past nicely supports the text’s idea of East Germany in a happy time.

Many positive things emerge from the everyday life of East Germans, such as free health care and high employment. Markus, who is full of ideology, rants about Western leaven, while he himself has full access to it. The harsh sides of the system only emerge momentarily, when a guest who criticizes a party is quietly sent home, or when a doctor mentions that air saturated with pollution makes children sick.

Or when one report can destroy many lives.

Review on the Apu magazine website.