Review: Äktenskapsgrejen
Women in focus
In the theatre world, the lack of good female roles is often pointed out, especially for older actors, but Gunilla Hemming is at least doing her best to remedy the problem. In the newly written Marriage Thing, three generations of women are in focus.
Gunilla Hemming’s The Marriage Thing had its world premiere under the direction of Chris af Ene-hielm at Lilla Teatern on September 11. Here we meet the 80-year-old matriarch Irma, who, after a decade of dating, suddenly chose to marry her 25-year-younger lover Fred, just as her middle-aged daughter Silja seeks her out to lick her wounds after being left for a younger woman by her husband Niklas, only to notice that Fred’s daughter, her future stepsister Ca, has already taken over her old room in the summer cottage.
Laila Björkstam is just right in the role of the real panther lady who just takes advantage of everything that life still has to offer, without re-flexing over how her choices affect her surroundings. To start preparing for a wedding, sell her house and move to Spain just when Silja would need both a mother and a parental home, is unusually insensitive. But then again, Irma has never had parenthood in focus and the children have been allowed to grow up freely but insecurely, like so many other children with parents from the freedom-worshipping hippie age. Not even rumours or innuendos about Fred’s missteps, gambling problems and coffee after a supposed future inheritance make Irma prick up her ears.
Joachim Wigelius takes the petty sleazy artist Fred, who mainly paints nude pictures of Irma, among others, on the grain. Jonna Järnefelt is perfect in the role of Silja, wounded and confused with her nerves on the surface. The charming Carl-Kristian Rund-man, who is seen all too rarely on the Finnish-Swedish theatre stage, draws a skilful portrait of the donkey between the haystacks, her husband Niklas, who both wants to eat his cake and keep it. As a breath of fresh air, Oksana Lommi’s eminent portrayal of the androgynous literature student Ca, who has finally reconciled with her father after the bitterness of being the child of divorce. Ca also admires Irma and wants to write her dissertation on her old scandal-ridden debut book The Woman Who Quakes, which once made Irma a feminist icon. Ca propagates for a reprint that would once again bring her into the spotlight.
Sometimes I find myself thinking that it’s a little inappropriate for the audience to laugh when the topics are so difficult and serious – how can they have fun when Silja is having such a bad time? But of course there is comedy in all the tragic. Even if the play is sometimes made as a farce, it is about painful memories and experiences and the text is very universal – most people have at some point or will have been forced to confront problems with parenthood, sibling rivalry, inheritance disputes, infidelity, divorce, reconstituted family problems.
In Chris af Enehielm’s direction, the acting troupe is very evenly matched and interacting, everyone shines in their roles without outshining each other. Markus Tsokkinen’s stylised archipelago villa with fine sound and light effects such as sunsets and sea noise design Ville Aaltonen and Niklas Lundström complete the atmosphere of the play. The text itself contains so many gems that it is even difficult to give examples as quotations. Overall, The Marriage Thing leaves you wanting more – you would like to watch it again to further reflect on all the thoughts and feelings the play evokes.