Review: Everstinna

The Colonel is unrestrained on stage

One woman, one evening or maybe a night, and the channel of memories open in my mind. This is how the interpretation of Rosa Liksom’s award-winning work The Colonel, directed by Susanna Airaksinen, is built.

The text is based on the life of the writer Annikki Kariniemi (1913–1984). There is only Heidi Herala on stage, but the soundscape brings to life the important people and situations that have happened during the Colonel’s life.

The language of the book has been made easier for the stage, but the strong Lapland atmosphere remains. It also remains with the help of the bloody character created by Herala, who lives strongly through instincts.

The brutally beautiful stage is a soft swamp with eyes and snarls. Vesa Ellilä’s dynamic lighting opens up the world and landscapes in the Colonel’s mind.

EVERSTINNA WADES THROUGH HER LIFE since childhood. The unvarnished personal history describes both the individual’s desire and ambition as well as the social situation in Lapland, which is full of German soldiers.

When childhood, adolescence and part of adulthood are based on one truth, that all good things come from Germany, it is up to the aging woman to erode her values and see the world with new eyes.

Herala is as if in flames as he empathizes with the moods of the Colonel’s journey. Strong eroticism characterizes life, and it is everywhere: on the silky soft mounds of the barren swamp landscape, in the swamp and on the starry arc of the sky.

Although the Colonel is a strong woman, her place is determined by the side of a man
to submit, all the way to violence. Growing from that state to an independent woman and an observer of society’s hidden violence is painful and requires sacrifices.

JOHANNA PUUPERÄ’S rich soundscape and music depicting different eras are beautifully intertwined with the twists and turns of the monologue.

The men, the father and the colonel, as well as Uncle Matti, are making noises for the Colonel, they remind
from moments of ecstasy to curbing the shouting of the wrong truth. The social thread runs cleverly on stage both in the text and through props.

Despite its heavy theme, the performance has a lot of comic expression. Excerpt
is intense and the company they see is relentless. Set during the wars, the complex wedges unnoticed into the present day, with values and all.