Review: Morfars mauser
Lilla Teatern shakes things up and provokes thoughts with the socially engaged play Grandfather’s Mauser.
Science journalist Marcus Rosenlund, known for the radio program Kvanthopp and the book Weather that changed the world, does not hesitate to expose himself in the partly autobiographical play Grandfather’s Mauser. The personal story is rooted in Rosenlund’s childhood, when he was subjected to severe bullying.
As a performance, Grandpa’s Mauser has enough explosive material and drama to keep the viewer alert. In addition, it raises thoughts and asks questions about bullying and its consequences. How far do you go to avoid your tormentors?
The performance begins with the main character, the well-known TV meteorologist Rolle (Tobias Zilliacus), who receives a phone call just before the live broadcast. At the same time as he loses his concepts and makes a fool of himself in the TV broadcast, it causes old wounds in the depths of his soul to open up again.
The sequel is a look back at what happened in Rolle’s childhood at school in the 1980s. All the old demons come to light, Rolle’s broken family, his divorce later on, and finally the confrontation with his greatest tormentor in a resort as he lies dying of cancer.
Personal hell
The scenography with mirroring but at the same time transparent plexiglass gives the illusion of a personal hell and bubble with the rest of the world outside.
Rolle, called Rolle Bollen by his tormentors, is an intelligent little boy from the lower social scale in Kauniainen, interested in astrophysics and quantum physics as well as meteorology. He subscribes to Illustrated Science and has mastered scientific issues from a young age.
Therefore, he is considered a nerd and an outsider by the more well-off but not so clever comrades Henkka (Markus Riuttu) and two other guys, played by Joachim Wigelius and Pia Runnakko. The trio bullies him in a bestial way, mocks him for liking grandma’s (Runnakko) sausage sandwiches with a lot of butter on them, beats him, buries his head in the snow and even pees in his boot. To silence the ridicule and harassment, he finally finds his grandfather’s German Mauser pistol from the war and takes it to school. Or does he? At least in the imagination.
Background factors
In the background, a grandfather of the old tribe (Wigelius) haunts him with his own war traumas, which he stubbornly keeps silent. Instead, he urges young Rolle not to cry in front of his mean comrades, but to be manly.
In his immediate circle, Henkka with his own broken family relationships appears as a typical insecure bully who one day is Rolle’s friend, but the next day he is transformed into his worst enemy by peer pressure. When Rolle later in life meets Henkka in Phuket, the roles are reversed, Rolle has succeeded in life in contrast to Henkka who has sunk to the bottom of society.
The theme feels familiar from other depictions of bullying, such as Jan Guillou’s Evil and Jonas Gardell’s A Comedian’s Upbringing. But Grandpa’s Mauser deals more explicitly with what happens when you are completely alone with your problems, when the outside world does not understand to answer your cry for help. And what it drives a young person to do and what the consequences are. In the end, Rosenberg could have become our first school shooter.
Not just a thriller
If the story is unfortunately as relevant today as it was in the 1980s, it also has many dramatic merits that make the show seem like a thriller and then some.
Michaela Granit’s visually intense direction contributes to this with its tempo changes and humorously laid out surprises in miniature, such as when Rolle and Henkka drive down the sledding slope with a steering wheel. Video projections, music, sound and light make the stage even more exciting.
Despite the unpleasant tone, Grandpa’s Mauser also consists of blackened humour, laughter and warmth. Tobias Zilliacus and Markus Riuttu carry the play forward. They are responsible for two excellent performances, where both the power of the text and the physical expression are pushed to the extreme. Zilliacus’ despair and Riuttu’s mocking laughter tear at his heart.
Grandpa’s Mauser is a play that many people can relate to, which provokes thoughts and contributes insights that, in the best case, make the world a better place.