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Note: No longer in repertoire!
Cast: Jonna Järnefelt, Sampo Sarkola, Pekka Strang and Carl-Kristian Rundman
Translated from Catalan into Finnish by: Anu Partanen
Director: Pentti Kotkaniemi
Set and costume design: Ralf Forsström
Lilla Teatern’s hilarious job search comedy IN THE PLAYOFFS, EVERYONE IS YOUR ENEMY What happens when four career guns looking for the same job are locked in a room to perform absurd tasks? This absurd recruitment interview is followed in Lilla Teatern’s insanely funny job search comedy Playoffs. The play, which premiered in Finnish on 20 April, is also a poignantly topical satire on the modern labour market. Whoever leaves the room first loses his or her seat. The Playoff (Grönholms metod), written by Catalan author Jordi Galceranin, premiered in Barcelona in 2003 and has since been seen by more than a million people around the world. Galceranin also visited Finland to watch the Finnish premiere of the Playoffs.
Read moreWANTED FOR SERVICE: NICE ASSHOLELillan’s Playoffs is a great comedy about modern job search
Read moreLILLA HAS EVERYTHING AT STAKEJordi Galceranin’s play about the turmoil of working life is now also available in FinnishCatalan Jordi Galceran’s play stars in Grönholm’s method, an aptitude test developed by a fictional Swedish psychologist to select new employees. Grönholm’s Method, which was performed in Swedish at Lilla Teatern for the first half of the year, has been given the name Dropout Game in order to avoid confusion. The four candidates for the position of director in the furniture company’s branch office are locked in a meeting room, where the aptitude test assignments are forwarded through a mailbox on the wall.It is not only the methods by which job seekers are tested that are unbelievable and cruel. So are the qualities that are required of them. There is always someone to choose, but what justifies the means and how far can we go in the demands? The Finnish audience has internalized the spirit of the game, as evidenced by the storm of laughter that repeatedly sweeps the stands. Translator Anu Partanen has skilfully translated the play into Finnish. The actors’ speech does not interfere with national peculiarities in one direction or another, and thus does not offer the viewer the opportunity to believe that all this is not happening here and now. The focus of the play is on tensions, which are caused not only by unpredictable test methods and invisible evaluators, but also by the relationships between the test subjects as the play progresses. What are they covering up and what do they expect the employer to want to see? The Swedish-language performance period has further increased the actors’ confidence in a text full of sudden twists and turns, and changing the language has not caused any difficulties for any of them. The work of Jonna Järnefelt, Carl-Kristian Rundman, Sampo Sarkolaand Pekka Strang can be followed with faith, hope and doubt in their chests. Still, let’s keep it a secret how the race will turn out. And the end result is not important in itself, after all, they are not trying to join our company.
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