Review: Palvelija

The last performance of this spring season at the City Theatre is Martti Suosalo’s visiting monologue The Servant. Although there are quite a few roles for a monologue here. But what’s the matter, Martti takes care of it.

The beginning is snappy. The person walks onto the stage, introduces himself and starts to give a presentation. About people, crimes, service and service. What is a servant like? How does an ordinary person seem unusual? What distinguishes the ordinary from the unusual? What distinguishes ordinary people from each other? People in their ordinary lives are quite caricatures at best, and Martti throws them out one after the other. At the same time, human nature is explored like an interesting, on the one hand sympathetic, on the other hand a slightly strange bug under a magnifying glass. You don’t have to scratch off the shiny – or even cloudy – surface of humanity when all kinds of things start to be revealed underneath.

The role changes are staggering. In an instant, Martti throws himself from one person to another at his best with the help of his expression and posture alone. Sometimes he has half a dialogue, sometimes a whole dialogue with himself. And he is also engaged in dialogue with the audience. Martti tells, describes, creates from nothing, watches from the sidelines and lives in the middle of events.

The set design of the performance is minimal but functional. Very important elements in the performance are the lights, as well as sound effects and sound effects that create different moods and locations in an instant. The effortlessly stylish solutions provide a background that supports Martti’s sovereign performance, but in no way tries to rise above the performer.

The hall was full, and the audience lived and breathed along with the performance. I don’t know how intense the atmosphere was conveyed all the way to the back, but at least in the foreground, where you could see the expressions and nuances well, you could really feel how everyone was absorbed towards the stage and the one-man performance. Especially in the first half, there was a lot of laughter in the stands – the atmosphere in the second half was a little different, but as the plot intensified, it was by no means worse. Some individual roles also received applause, and at the end, the praise literally exploded. Yes, this is worth seeing!