Review: Tahto
Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. The Aikku of our whole nation. World champion. 15 championship medals. Athlete with the most cross-country skiing World Cup competitions in the world. His twenty-year career at the national team level has included, both literally and figuratively, several ups and downs.
No word can describe this play better than Will. It is made clear to us that Aino-Kaisa (Sanna-June Hyde) was not necessarily the most talented athlete or the ideal skier in terms of physical characteristics. But he wanted to be the best. He was ready to do absolutely anything for it. To make every sacrifice that is necessary. Many athletes say that they do this, but Aino-Kaisa was really ready for it. To be the top of the world, you have to be selfish enough and take what belongs and what you need. Gray mice don’t make it and they don’t get noticed.
But the harder you want it, the more painful the disappointments are. Perhaps that’s why, in addition to her fierce will and determination, Aino-Kaisa also had another side. He was constantly unsure of what he was doing. My self-confidence went up and down. The coach’s (Rauno Ahonen) phone rings non-stop as Aino-Kaisa seeks instructions and support for her work. Sanna-Jude Hyde beautifully brings out the different sides of Aino-Kaisa on stage.
Virpi Kuitunen (Linda Zilliacus) in her golden ski outfit was depicted as a character for whom everything seemed to be easy. It must be an unhealthy situation to have to share a hotel room with a person who was both a friend and the worst competitor at the same time. There was a natural tension between them, and the emotions were full of encouragement and jealousy.
The most surprising character in the play is Andre Agassi (Santeri Kinnunen), a tennis star of yesteryear. In the dreamlike episodes, she seemed to be some kind of muse/mentor/demon to Aino-Kaisa. Since I haven’t read Pekka Holopainen’s book, on which the play is based, I couldn’t quite figure out whether Agassi was really some kind of role model in Aino-Kaisa’s history or whether he was just developed for the stage as a metaphorical totem animal.
I’m a fanatical bench athlete myself and I’d probably watch the paint dry if there was a competition for it. An easy way for me to make a play like this more emotional would have been to recap the highlights of Aino-Kaisa’s career and show them on a video screen or in some other dramatized way. I would have been a drop in the lens and in the grip of nostalgia. Although the highlights of his career were touched upon, the play nevertheless focused on the person behind the sports performances. And this was the right decision. We can revisit all the top moments of sports in life, for example, through Youtube, but we can’t see from there how the Saarinen family competed for everything from a young age. From berry picking to eating kiissel. They ran around the house while their father (Risto Kaskilahti) took their time and their mother (Leena Rapola) encouraged them. Her twin sister (Vappu Nalbantoglu) was a natural motivator, competitor and supporter in everything. Already in the baby photo, the sisters had wooden skis next to them, and the play asks whether Aino-Kaisa chose skiing or skiing Aino-Kaisa. Her partner Tom (Tatu Mönttinen / Mikko Virtanen) brings love and balance to everyday life.
Beforehand, I pondered a bit about how to create a play about Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and what perspective to choose for it, because there are not quite enough of them in sports and athletes. The end result is both artistic and revealing the character. Screenwriter Aina Bergroth and director Sini Pesonen have found a good balance of history, sports and people in the performance.
If skiing doesn’t grab you in real life, then luckily watching this doesn’t require sports madness.