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Note: No longer in repertoire!
Performers
Jouko Klemettilä
Eppu Salminen
Merja Pietilä
Translation Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen, Heli Kivimäki
Control Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen
Set and costumes Jyrki Seppä
Lights Teppo Saarinen
Sound Ari-Pekka Saarikko
Music Petri Lapintie, Ari-Pekka Saarikko
Välkky and Pölkky in the summer pasture Pasila’s British novelty is a small and beautiful poem about courage Abi Morgan: Dynamite chip. Helsinki City Theatre, Studio Pasila. Translated by Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen and Heli Kivimäki, directed by Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen, set design and costumes by Jyrki Seppä, lighting by Teppo Saarinen, music and sound by Ari-Pekka Saarikko and Petri Lapintie. Cast: Jouko Klemettilä, Eppu Salminen and Merja Pietilä. Abi Morgan’s Dynamite Chip is a play about two men who have known each other forever. One of the men was struck by lightning at the age of six, while the other believes that he was spared without a blow in his life. Men are Ugly and Shy Man to each other. Rujo is an alcoholic marginal person, shy teaches companies risk management.Every summer, the men spend their holidays together in cottages rented by a shy man from all over the country.During the two summer weeks depicted in the play, a woman invades the men’s lives: alternately a beloved jumping off a bridge and a stranger hitchhiking in the dark. One of the characters refers to the past, the other to the future. The present is represented by the uncomplicated assistant girl of a nearby restaurant, who delivers the groceries ordered by the men. Abi Morgan belongs to the same generation of British dramatists as Mark Ravenhill, who is topical in Kom Theatre’s Nudes, or Stephen Greenhorn, the author of the play Passing Places, which was staged at the National Theatre about three years ago. In a way, the dynamite chip is very reminiscent of Greenhorn’s play, where two men drive a surfboard on the roof of a car around Scotland with a rowdy hitchhiker girl.Morgan writes much more centrally than Greenhorn. Mental landscapes and the wildly poetic movement of memories replace the masculine road movie structure. Morgan enhances his lucid story with magic, which is delightfully theatrical magic for the viewer. Under the light-hearted and airy guidance of Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen, the chairs of the villa dance and sandwiches are thrown from the hands of the eaters to the heavens. Lyytikäinen has not set out to solve the play too far in any direction, but has relied on its fragmentary playfulness. With the help of the actors, who clearly enjoy working with the text, the pale bare stage staged by Jyrki Seppä is transformed into an aureerily cozy place, the gauze walls of which also give room for the magic of the play. Eppu Salminen Ujo and Jouko Klemettilä’s Rujo are reminiscent of the characters of Asko Sarkola and Esko Salminen in Coline Serreau’s play Välkky ja Pölkky. However, the realistic basis of the story brings Morgan’s characters much closer to the Finnish audience, and the basic setting of the play is sure to interest young people in particular. Klemettilä is impressive as a trampled involuntary but unleashed mess that is released into a wild flight of spirit. Eppu Salminen’s importance as a slick success is devilishly recognizable, as is the vulnerability of a shy man in the face of life’s first real risk. The actors work together effortlessly. The characters are outwardly each other’s extremes, but there is no doubt about the bond between the men. Merja Pietilä plays a woman or women with captivating precision, all of whom are united by a crooked nose and funny hair. The Dynamite Chip is a small, big play about courage – and pretty much love as well.
Read moreThe mystical excursion of the crippled and shy Plays by young English dramatists seem to be dropping on our stages in abundance. What they all have in common is some kind of precision research of this time. The children of a fragmented world walk around uncertain and questioning, mirroring their lives.Abi Morgan’s Dynamite Chip at Theatre Studio Pasila takes the viewer into a partly mystical world. It can be seen as a symbolic depiction of an uncertain state or as a longing for a fairy tale pulsating alongside a cruel reality.The main characters are a crippled and shy man who share a common childhood history. Rujo Anthony has been struck by lightning at the age of six, and that event leaves its mark on everything that happens.Both friends look for similar strange incidents on the pages of newspapers, where some random thing has led to another and then maybe even a third, etc. The problems of cause and effect are explored both in the text and in the theatrical solutions.Anthony has sunk down into the gutters and left himself to life. The shy Lucien has progressed in his career, but the pieces of his personal life have not fallen into place.Every summer, Lucien takes Anthony somewhere in the countryside, dresses him clean and feeds him properly. That is where the time of the play is spent even now. The purpose is to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and live a small piece of the past, childhood. However, there is a nasty memory that they both want to escape. The reason for that memory rises to the surface as a question mark in the form of a local young woman.Madeleine brings food to men every day. Gradually, he becomes friends with both of them. Time is spent swimming and talking.Strange things are happening around us. Dishes fall over on their own, chairs dance in the air and sandwiches fly. There is not much effort to explain mysticism, it is just wondered.Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen’s directorial work leaves a lot to the viewer’s interpretation.Together with Jyrki Seppä’s ethereal set design, the whole exudes unrelenting tensions. It rains and sparks on the stage, fireflies and bees swarm there. Nature takes a strong grip alongside the text. Humans do not have the answer to everything.
Read moreAnna-Elina Lyytikäinen has directed British Abi Morgan’s magical play Dynamite Chip at Studio Pasila, which tells the story of two friends who have known each other since childhood. The men’s wounds are torn open when a funny-haired woman appears in the house, reminiscent of men’s youthful love. Charismatic talents Jouko Klemettilä and Eppu Salminen play well together both with each other and with the charmingly cheerful Merja Pietilä.There is no miscellaneous soup on offer, but a beautiful soup with a lot to enjoy: solid direction, great actors, very high-quality Finnish translation, eye-catching set design and functional music. At least this viewer got a belly full of goodies.
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