Review: Äktenskapsgrejen

Lillan’s foyer was packed with Finnish-Swedish cultural figures when the new play Äktenskapsgrejen, written by Gunilla Hemming and directed by Chris af Enehielm, premiered on 11 September 2019. The buzz of conversation bubbled happily, this group knows each other.

Äktenskapsgrejen translates into a marriage story in Finnish, but more than about marriage, the play is about the stories of women of different generations, what the world expects of them or what they themselves expect from life. There are five people in the play and I think three would have been enough. I would have left the gorgeous women in the family’s summer cottage to discuss their choices and dreams, and the men could have been just references in the text. And I say this, even though the other male role was played by my favorite Carl-Kristian Rundman.The three women in Aviosgrejen are Irma, Silja and Ca.

Irma, played by Laila Björkstam, is some kind of cultural figure who has written a controversial book about female sexuality in the 1960s. She spends her retirement days with a younger man, Fred, played by Joachim Wigelius. The man worships Irma, takes care of the home and paints paintings. Apparently, he also takes care of other women on his shopping trips.

Silja, played by Jonna Järnefelt, is Irma’s daughter. She is at a crossroads, as her husband Niklas has found a new, younger, foreigner and set off on his journey. The children are adults and they, in turn, have flown to distant countries. Due to the lack of money, she has also had to rent out the apartment, so Silja arrives with her caftan to the summer cottage hosted by her mother.

The representative of the young generation is Ca, who refuses to even call herself a woman. He has popped into Irma’s nuclear family, as Ca’s father is Fred. Ca tries to persuade Irma to give permission to republish the controversial work of the 60s, as she feels that its message still speaks to people in the 2010s. Cata is played by Oksana Lammi.

The mother and daughter discuss their life situation and their relationship with each other in heated terms. In these dialogues, there is no petting, but accusations and criticism. What has the mother done wrong in her motherhood, what has the daughter done wrong in her marriage, what is the mother doing wrong now, and what will the daughter do in general now that the husband and the children do not limit the decision-making.

Ca brings a breath of fresh air from a new generation whose choices are no longer limited by anything, but still there seem to be no opportunities. The future opens up bleak, and she gives perspective to the conversation of older women as a horn of truth.

There is plenty of text and themes. In addition to the lobster, so many things are raised on the table at the summer cottage that, at least for me as a spectator, the red thread of the play disappeared a bit. On the other hand, the conversation was really real, because that’s how it goes when you start discussing the fate of the family cottage, for example!

The text had insightful dialogue and intelligent humour. For once, I was also amused by the drunken drunkenness and it still makes me smile when I remember Jonna Järnefelt as Silja comparing the benefits of drinking wine and pilates.

Instead, I was left wondering that both Silja and Ca resorted to venting their anxiety with physical violence.

The female actors were all strong and believable in their roles. There was nothing wrong with the men, but their roles were very caricature-like. All in all, it was a nice theatre evening, which gave a good spark for further discussions about the role of women and relationships.

“It’s important to look at each other with kindness,” Silja says.