Theater Review | Kom theater bravely took on the Icelandic hit play, but the result is a remarkable mess

Comedy drama

Seven stories of shame. Premiere at the KOM theater on 11 September 2024. Play Tyrfingur Tyrfingsson, translated into Finnish by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen and Kári Tulinius, directed by Ona Korpiranta.

★★

I don’t haven’t been on such a bumpy ride in a while.

KOM theater Seven stories of shame -the qualitative spectrum of the show stretches from unfathomable stupidity to brilliantly acted scenes in which transgenerational traumas tear apart the relationship between mother and daughter.

Unfortunately, there are more of the former than the latter.

Of Icelandic origin of Tyrfingur Tyrfingsson the award-winning play is about the young female police officer Agla (Isla Mustanoja), who rushes to the psychiatrist (Juho Milonoff) after coming to the reception, his police mother (Katja Küttner) to terminate.

Agla has started behaving violently after being sexually humiliated by a burglar. He hatches revenge on his female friend, who did not defend him in a moment of need.

In addition, Agla has a history of substance abuse, just like her grandmother, which is why Agla’s mother has had trouble showing love to Agla – since she hasn’t received it from her own mother.

Then there are a million other things that make no head and no tail. For example, Agla’s father compiles a book about animal droppings and talks a lot about poop.

Presentation is divided into seven stories about shame within the frame narrative, which reveal Agla’s life and family background.

The stories shed light on the theme of shame, each from their own angle, but in many places you can find an angle by looking for it. Or I have misunderstood something badly.

The first story is about a couple with a plastic bag on their heads. It deals with shame perhaps most obviously, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the play as a whole.

The show gets better towards the end and there is also some really good stuff, especially in terms of the actors’ performances.

The scenes between Mustanoja and Milonoff are like water for someone walking through the desert. The dialogue is top notch and there is good chemistry between the actors: Milonoff as true to his style, Mustanoja as sincere and taking his roles seriously.

A few of Küttner’s scenes are also great, even though the actor messed up his words a bit in the premiere.

I like of the show’s anarchic and unbending attitude. The use of language is harsh and controversial, and when dealing with shame, one dares to navigate even dangerous waters. The plot twists are absurd in many places. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

I tried very hard to relate the play to its homeland, Iceland. There it was nominated for 12 awards at a local theater industry gala, of which it won half.

The text refers to Iceland’s small population and it also comes through in the KOM theater performance. All the characters in the play are, as it were, in a slightly too cramped space and close to each other. A mother and daughter in the same workplace, a colleague secretly in love, a romance that started with an arrest and so on.

There’s something interesting about that. Especially when in the play shame is connected to the dynamic of covering and revealing. In a small space, privacy is on the cards.

Another factor that frames the events of the play is the marriage of Icelandic women to American soldiers during the Cold War, when there was a US military base in Iceland.

Marriages were not looked upon favorably and Aglak also suffers in a way from the shame inherited from there. Some kind of surface of identification can be found in the history of Finland during the war in Lapland.

I appreciate the courage to tackle foreign contemporary plays that are more than Yankee musicals or British chamber plays. But this text would require an exceptionally precise vision and an artistic nod to make its essence clear.

Cast: Youssef Asad Alkhatib, Katja Küttner, Juho Milonoff, Isla Mustanoja, Tuuli Paju and Satu Silvo, stage and video design, photos Janne Vasama, costume design Riitta-Maria Vehman, lighting and video design Julia Jäntti and Tomi Suovankoski, sound design Jani Rapo, makeup design Leila Mäkynen, director’s assistant Vili Nissinen