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Note: No longer in repertoire!
Translated by Lauri Sipari
Director: Kari Heiskanen
Set design: Hannu Lindholm
Costumes: Sari Salmela
Lighting design: Risto Heikkerö
Sound design: Antero Mansikka
Cast: Eero Aho, Seppo Halttunen, Riitta Havukainen, Heidi Herala, Seppo Maijala, Juhani Niemelä, Matti Olavi Ranin, Kreeta Salminen, Aino Seppo, Jemina Sillanpää, Leena Uotila, Sami Uotila, Ritva Valkama
FAMILY COMMUNITY’S WOLF MOMENT The play August blows up a family’s life lie. The family is a unit that has fascinated playwrights throughout the ages. Maybe because all human emotions are present in the family. As a member of the family, a person is at their most naked and therefore also the most vulnerable. Helsinki City Theatre’s August is a tragic family drama. The play by American Tracy Letts , completed the year before last, has been praised in the United States, and it has already been elevated to the status of a classic.Even at the beginning of the play, the Weston family is not a dream family. His wife Violet suffers from cancer and takes pills, and his wife Beverly is a learned alcoholic. He disappears and is found dead.The funeral will be attended by the family’s three daughters and their partner, as well as Violet’s sister and her family. The play’s loudest bangs explode in the second half, as family member after family member begins to unravel evil secrets. However, August is not a hotbed of anxiety, as the text has plenty of black humour and Kari Heiskanen’s fine direction breathes airily. Ritva Valkaman Violet is the play’s amazing central character, although Violet is not quite the matron you would expect. Lauri Sipari’s translation is in some places unacceptably reminiscent of the original language, English.
Read moreA BLACK COMEDY ABOUT TRAGIC FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Read moreRitva Valkama conquers the Helsinki City Theatre with her charisma in August
Read moreValkama maintains order The broad line of modern American drama runs from the opening of family secrets to the psychopathology of the individual: putting a group of people connected to each other either by blood ties or marriage in the same room, invading each person’s intimate area and seeing what kind of monsters are revealed under the smoothed façade. Tracy Letts’ In August, only the matriarch of the Weston family does not try to maintain the protective layer of civilized behavior and modesty. That is why Mrs. Violet (Ritva Valkama) becomes the play’s truth-teller, who, in the moment of delirium caused by her drug stupor, puts her sister, three daughters and their spouses in reprimand. August is naturally tied to the same dramatic tradition as Tennessee Williams , and Tracy Letts’ way of bringing the American countryside and the bleak mental climate of the backwoods into the fates of her characters goes back to William Faulkner’s prose. Only times have gotten tougher since Williams. Hidden bottles and children in the grove are no longer enough to blow up the family idyll, we need themes such as incest. The dramaturgical turning point is the memorial service for the Weston family’s father, who ended in suicide, which the widow Violet thinks is “a great day for the truth”. Under Kari Heiskanen’s direction, laughter gets stuck in our throats, and that’s just right for us.
Read moreHelsinki City Theatre’s stunning family drama touches mothers and daughters AUGUST IS THE TIME OF THE HARVEST OF SECRETS August is the time to harvest secrets Director Kari Heiskanen has just picked up a play written by American Tracy Letts and adapted it to the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre.Ritva Valkama does one of her best roles as a diabolical matriarch. The play covers the August tray, from which there is enough to taste well into the spring. The scene in August has deteriorated: the dreary house and plastic-covered windows hint at the delusional reality in which the residents of the house live.The earth and its barrenness are indicated by a cactus sticking out on the side of the stage. It can also be thought of as describing a stinging atmosphere and prickly language.It’s August in Oklahoma.The play centers on married couple Beverly and Violet Weston and their three daughters.The events begin when the father mysteriously disappears on a fishing trip, having previously hired a young Cheyenne Indian named Johnna as a housekeeper.The disappearance attracts Violet’s sister Mattie Fae and the family’s daughters with their husbands and children like a magnet.When the ingredients are together, it’s time for the concoction.Under Violet’s command, the family’s life lies and self-deceptions are scooped out of the relationship soup that has been brewing for years.The theme of the play is also a middle-aged woman and her “market value”. Tracy Letts’ people are symptomatic children, insecure or indifferent parents, and abusive adults.The language is rough in places, but this is how it has always been spoken in this family. Inflamed SisterhoodAnyone who has seen the play can hardly claim that it does not scratch in any way.The story, which tells the story of family ties that have gone into a dead end, has so much to grasp that the viewer must be made of Teflon if the events remain untouched.The play has a lot of recognizable problems of a modern family, and sometimes it splashes a lot.Mothers are strong, they see everything. Sick and abused as a child, Violet has become concentrated to vinegar and has not missed a single secret.Nor about his own sister’s life.Grown-up daughters drag along a painful relationship with their pill-saturated mother, who still rants about dressing, pokes fun at male choices, commands them to stand up straight, complains about the lack of meetings, and in the end, she’s just afraid of being left alone.Of course, the mother gets back from her daughters, women’s meanness is refined into poisonous targeted attacks.It is said that the coexistence of siblings brings a sense of security: the knowledge that someone is moving in the same direction somewhere, as a child of the same history.Violet’s daughters have not internalized this feeling. Their relationship has become inflamed over time due to unresolved issues and distance.In the play, childhood has disappeared from everyone too early, leaving its inconsolable marks. Verbal ShooterThe main roles in the play are played by women. The men are bystanders, but they are nevertheless important catalysts that accelerate events at the junctions. Texts like August are gems for actors.The engine of the events is Ritva Valkama’s juicy portrayal of a woman of willValkama electrifies the stage like a generator, her body language and stopping mimicry captivating. The role is carefully thought out and the strikes are always on point.Leena Uotila’s Mattie Fae is also hilariously impressive as Ivy’s daughter, Aino Seppo as Karen and Riitta Havukainen as Barbara make believable and strong interpretations as different sisters.All the characters in the play are important, and the end result is the sum of great roles.At its juiciest, August is a verbal shooter that follows like a ping-pong match.The actors’ eye for the game does not disappoint, and the rhythm lasts for three hours without limping.A good play mercies the viewer, while sharp humour gives room for laughter. Events Continuum Kari Heiskanen’s direction mainly operates with the possibilities provided by the revolving platform. A continuum of events is created on the stage as the stage turns, changes the scene and starts a new scene.People wandering and waiting in place occasionally create an uneasy background. Hannu Lindholm’s set design is as fragmented as the human mind.The Oklahoma Plain comes alive in the emptiness of the stage. The dresses designed by Sari Salmela tell a lot about the people who wear them. Taina Tervo’s hairstyles and Salla Siven’s disguise give the finishing touches to the gallery of characters.A great story, the charismatic Ritva Valkama and good performances throughout guarantee that August’s harvest will be fruitful.
Read moreDRAMA IN AUGUST – ELEMENTS OF A CLASSIC Tracy Letts was born in 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Durant, the son of a writer mother and a professor father. After searching for a place in the world of his time, Letts became a dramatist.Killer Jo, written in 1991, made him world famous. After the rough play performed in almost 20 countries and at least 12 languages, Letts continued not only to write but also to act in theater, television and film.August (2007), which was recently added to the Helsinki City Theatre’s repertoire, is Letts’ latest victory, which was awarded three major awards in its home country (Drama Desk, Tony and Pulitzer). This was Letts’ second Pulitzer nomination, as it was also won by The Man from Nebraska (2003). August is an interesting mix of new images of our time and familiar lines from the classics of American drama. The fact that the work is set in a small Oklahoma town is clear evidence from partly autobiographical sources.At the heart of the story are the elderly Violet Weston, who is married to a university teacher and covers her bad mood by popping pills, played by Ritva Valkama with astonishing piety, as well as her younger sister and three daughters with their husbands/boyfriends. The story begins when the family’s father, a professor of literature and patriarch (Juhani Niemelä), hires a domestic servant of Indian descent to the house and goes fishing, and he is never seen after that. The Indian girl Johnna, played by Kreeta Salminen, seems to be almost the only balanced person in the crowd. It soon becomes clear that father Weston’s fishing trip has not ended well, and it is an excuse to bring close relatives together. Leena Uotila plays Violet’s younger sister Mattie Fae, and Heidi Herala, Riitta Havukainen and Aino Seppo play Violet’s daughters. Each of them has more or less failed in their male relationships.Barbara, played by Havukainen, tries to keep up the façade, but it soon becomes clear that all is not well, as Barbara and Bill (Matti Olavi Rani) are about to break up after Bill has a crush on a younger woman.Between malice, cynicism and outright evil, there is little room for hope and faith in a better tomorrow. With strong women, men really don’t have it easy.Wonderfully acted and beautifully written, August is one of the best American family dramas in a long time and offers almost a dozen brilliant roles for top actors. Fortunately, there is also a bit of humor in it to lighten up the otherwise dark story.
Read moreA STAGE FULL OF ACADEMIC MIDDLE CLASS AND HORRIBLE Tracy Letts’ nasty drama has thirteen good roles
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