Review: Tahto
Sports people thank you
Our wonderfully sports-crazy nation has now got a precision play. With an excellent textual basis and an enthusiastic implementation. The ingredients were provided by journalist and writer Pekka Holopainen by depicting ‘the two faces of Aino-Kaisa Saarinen’ in such an interesting way that another writer, after looking at them closely, began to see them on stage. The name Tahto is obeyed by both the book and Aina Bergroth’s self-motivated stage work. And what other name could be better when traveling to the top.
The value of this contemporary play is increased and clarified by the fact that it seeks not only points of connection but also backlight from yesterday. Sport is almost sacred to Finns across generations, but the relationship to it is not pompous. Humour is unlikely to get you fast on the track, but it is a big help in analysing performance. As a dramatist, Bergroth has carefully grasped the episodes that are anointed with situational comedy in the life of the central character or his community, and director Sini Pesonen aptly emphasizes the contours, the annoying, if even magnificent, features of human nature in her direction. Heroic stories, such as the stages of Anna-Kaisa Saarinen, are interesting precisely because they also measure the smallness of a person/people.
The performance also appeals aesthetically. By moving light curtains, scenes are shared and a setting is created for videos, the costume gallery stretches from the more mundane world of skiing to streamlined glamour, music and playful choreography are reminiscent of theatre as enjoyable stage art. And on stage – in a sport-specific way – we go a lot and fast.
Sanna-June Hyde has fully immersed herself in the lead role and does it with a genuinely large emotional scale. The movement language and training demonstrations make the viewer believe in both serious theatre work and the demands of elite sports. Together with Aikku, the viewer ponders whether it is perhaps overtraining or underrecovery and lives with the moments of disappointment and victory. Linda Zilliacus as Virpi Kuitunen is a great opponent for Hyde – the relationship between the rivals is badly chafed. Aino-Kaisa slams Virpi directly and reproaches her for disturbing her concentration on competition, receiving paranoia reprimands herself. The stage has a strong charge between the two.
Really delicious moments have been brought up from life in my childhood home, as the passion for sports is a family defect. Everything is made into competition, even berry picking, and to keep warm, people race around the house making records. Competitive spirit naturally characterizes the relationship between the twins, and later they are also colored by a slight bitterness. Vappu Nalbantoglu interprets the role of Maija, who is stepping aside, as fresh as it is strong. Coach Jamppa Rauno Ahonen does nuanced work, and Santeri Kinnunen throws himself into one role or another with the touch of a comedian. The team’s work as a whole is characterised by a focused tuning, a belief that something is being done that is guaranteed to be shared with those sitting in the hall. We have to consider who is actually the selector and who is the demander when we talk about exceptional individuals. Does the euphoria of victory and the euphoria of exhausting oneself in performance also reward possible losses on the long track of life?
It was touching to see the face and greeting of the real Aino-Kaisa Saarinen in the video, as well as to sense the presence of national feelings. I think commentator Paavo Noponen is nodding happily from the edge of the cloud.