Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.08.2004, Page 18

THE FINE ART OF
FINNISH MELANCHOLY
by Valur Gunnarsson
Finland and Iceland have a lot in common. Both are Nordic countries on the edge of Europe. Both
have long, dark nights, high suicide rates and their residents drink a lot of vodka. Both spent the second
half of the last century under the watchful eye of a neighbouring superpower. But whereas Iceland ben-
efited materially from the US military presence in World War II and received Marshall Aid at the end of
it, Finland fought the Soviet Union for five long years, and then had to pay reparations to the invader.
And despite Icelands latitude be-
ing right in the centre of Finland,
the climate is somewhat different.
Whereas Finns have to deal with
long, cold, monotonous winters,
which lead to a lot of introspection
followed by depression, Icelanders
have to deal with endless amounts of
wind and rain more likely to result
in frustration. Perhaps this explains
why Icelanders always try to deny
their melancholy, telling each other
they are always “hress” and “í stuði,”
whereas the Finns celebrate theirs.
A wonderful example of the latter
is Arto Paasilinna´s book Glori-
ous Mass Suicide, about a group of
rejects who travel through Finland
on a bus with the aim of driving off
a cliff on the Arctic coast. They then
turn around and decide to drown
themselves off Portugal instead.
The book does not at first glance
seem as if it would lend itself to dra-
matisation, but this is the ambitious
task embarked upon by the newly
founded thespian group Landsleikur.
For a play that mostly takes place on
a bus, the production is imaginative,
particularly with the utilisation of a
multi-purpose black box that is often
the centrepiece of amusing scene
changes, such as the drunk metamor-
phosing into a statue. The dramatisa-
tion quite sensibly cuts the journey
down, ending in Norway, and staging
off bus highlights. The humour is
stressed, as it should be for a cast
this young, and is mostly funny if
occasionally laboured. However, a
mistake is made in keeping the origi-
nal ages of the protagonists. One has
to overcome the obvious inconsis-
tency of the middle aged characters
of the text and the 20 year olds on
stage. Making the characters younger
would bypass this as well as broach
the dark subject of teenage suicide.
Still, you can´t fault a cast for its age,
all actors play various characters and
Karl Ágúst Þorbergsson particularly
shines as Colonel Hermanni. For
their parts the actors took lessons in
Finnish tango, and the tango music
that sets the atmosphere is a particu-
lar joy. In a melancholy sort of way,
of course. The tango in Argentina
celebrates sensuality, but in Finland
it seems to celebrate sadness. That´s
something we Icelanders should do
more often.
Glorious Mass Suicide is on tour.
Just a Little Bit of
History Repeating
A musical about a musical, Harlem So-
phisticate is about four African-American
and two Icelandic kids who come together
to put on a show. Jealousy, intrigue and
infidelity inevitably result. The young
Icelander learns the moves from the black
kids and winds up getting more attention
than they do, while the black girls are
stuck in stereotyped roles of prostitutes
or big mammas. This is not an update of
the life of Elvis or Eminem, but draws
inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance
of the 20´s and is set to the music of Duke
Ellington. The American blacks invented
Jazz, which was then popularised for a
mass audience by whites. The blacks then
invented Rock and Roll, only to have the
same thing happen again, and are now in
the process of seeing it happen to hip-hop.
It´ll be interesting to see what they come
up with next.
The play opens on August 13th at Loft-
kastalinn Theatre.