Perspectives on the everyday life of minorities
When Saara and Elisa, the roommates of the student cell, suddenly fall in love with each other, they are forced to think about what others think of their relationship. It is the early 2000s, and attitudes towards female couples are still lukewarm. But the years go by, the relationship changes to family, and at some point, the pressure from the outside eases.
Milja Sarkola read Laura Lehtola’s novel as soon as it was published in 2020 and thought she wanted to make a play adaptation of it. She had never read a book that evoked so many memories of her own life before.
“I found it really appealing. I identified with Helsinki in the 2000s and relationship life was strong,” Sarkola says.
Sarkola saw the text as staged, as Lehtola accurately describes situations from the perspective of many people. “It has good dialogue, and not so much reel in your head, which is more difficult to transfer to the stage.”
Exceptional cooperation
Sarkola and Lehtola agreed to write the play adaptation together. In practice, the play has been made for a joint, online documentary, which has always been editable by both parties.
The way of doing things has been new to both of them and has proven to be fun and inspiring. Writing has been more liberated when you have been able to get into the other person’s writing process and know at all times what the other person is doing.
“Usually when you’re writing, it’s really exciting to have the text read to someone else. There has been no pressure here. You can throw anything in there, and it doesn’t matter whose idea remains,” Sarkola says.
Sarkola’s main responsibility has been the dramaturgical transport and form of the play, while Lehtola has been responsible for writing the lines, because he knows the characters better.
“The more the play was written, the more the work became intertwined, and it is no longer possible to distinguish what is whose thinking,” Sarkola says.
The original story has been preserved in the play, but it was decided to rewrite the chronology. Towards the end of the novel, Saara meets Antti, who interviews Saara for her doctoral dissertation. These interviews form the framework of the play.
“It has been a challenge to find a new theatrical form for the novel’s 13-year chronology, so that it would not feel numbing. It has required condensation and the selection of priorities,” Sarkola says.
The play features a cinematic narrative that jumps quickly from one time and place to another. This has required careful advance planning, which Sarkola has done in collaboration with set designer Kaisa Rasila, costume designer Emilia Eriksson, sound designer Aleksi Saura, lighting designer Kari Leppälä and make-up artist Tuula Kuittinen .
“But as a director, I rarely have a very precise vision of the genre before I get to work with actors. I trust that the world is created when the text, the actors and the stage meet. The best thing about directing is that you get to be involved when the characters start to live their own lives in the actors’ bodies.”
Modern Family
I Chose You depicts the lives and relationships of two women at a time when there is a major societal change in how homosexuality is viewed. However, Sarkola points out that this does not change the fact that people have grown up in a homophobic world.
Of the characters in the play, Saara in particular has grown up to be ashamed of her own sexual identity. “We have talked a lot about internal homophobia and how shame follows even though the spirit of the times is changing,” Sarkola says.
At the heart of the play, however, is the long relationship between two different people. Elisa is traditional, from the countryside and strongly attached to her parents. Saara is a dashing city dweller who does not always remember to treat her loved ones fairly.
“I found it a tantalizing starting point to bring Saara’s character to the stage. He was interested in something outrageous, that he can’t really stick to any pattern or format,” Sarkola says.
In Sarkola’s opinion, characters like Saara are 99% reserved for men in the stories. In a relationship, Saara is the one who comes and goes as she pleases, while Elisa conscientiously takes care of the housework and the child.
“It’s infuriating, fascinating and enviable at the same time that I could be so reckless and take up a lot of space and not take responsibility for women’s traditional tasks,” Sarkola says.
The play also raises questions related to biological and social parenthood. Although women have always been able to have children with each other, this type of nuclear family is still relatively new as an officially accepted form of family.
The play offers a wide range of perspectives on the everyday life of minorities. “It has a lot of warm humour about sexual minorities, identities and sexuality. The change in the general atmosphere of the 2000s feels strongly like a theme of our time,” Sarkola says.
Ida Henritius