Theater Review | Svenska Teatern's Läkaren impresses with its motley group of performers

Drama

The doctor. Premiere on the big stage of Svenska Teatern 7.2. Robert Icke's play directed by Saana Lavaste. ★★★

Three after sitting for an hour, the viewer feels tired and Anna Hultin played by Ruth Wolff, she also finally gets to sit in her garden with a cup of tea.

Simply following social media conversations can take a person's strength away in a few minutes, so one can only imagine what the subjects of the painting caught in the eye of the storm must experience.

If there's still a person somewhere who doesn't think they can live up to the situation, it's worth going to see Svenska Teatern's appropriately exhausting British drama The doctor (Doctor).

Robert Icken the sad beginning of the play five years ago is very ordinary for Ruth Wolff, the founder and director of the research institute. An unconscious teenage girl with a very poor prognosis is brought to the facility.

An avalanche of events starts from a small everyday situation. An unknown man arrives, who is not wanted in the dying girl's room. Director Wolff confirms his decision by raising his hand in front of the man.

However, there are a huge number of variables in the girl's background, in the light of which Wolff's decision is starting to be questioned.

The girl had an abortion at home with the help of medication after her parents went on a trip. The parents, reached from an airport, could not come to the girl, but sent a Catholic priest to give the last anointing.

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The suspenseful play about power, ethics and cancel culture touches on identity political issues.

Wolff feels that he is primarily a doctor in his life and that he acted in the situation only in the capacity of a doctor, but suddenly his Jewishness, his womanhood, his educational background and his social status are brought to the fore.

He considers it appropriate to keep his sexual orientation even more carefully hidden.

A thriller about power, ethics and cancel culture also touches very strongly on issues of identity politics.

The fast-paced play, which flaunts today's terminology, has a solid traditional foundation at the same time.

British dramatists have a charming way of recycling and retuning old plays to a new faith. Robert Icke's play can be considered Austrian by Arthur Schnitzler drama Professor Bernhardi (1912) as superscript.

Get Lavaste while watching the play he directed, for a moment it comes to mind as if you were in Vienna a hundred years ago, watching some socially focused melodrama.

However, Icke has crammed in so many different ingredients that the whole thing comes across as fragmented postmodern.

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Svenskan's presentation emphasizes the chaotic nature of everything.

The doctor there is surprisingly little interpersonal drama. Ruth Wolff does not so much meet the girl's parents and close circle, but above all members of her own work community who have been influenced by the often faceless representatives of social and traditional media, panel discussion experts and finally also her own loved ones wounded by all the turmoil.

In the final scene, Icke returns to Schnitzler and the possibility of forgiveness.

Svenskan's performance emphasizes the chaotic nature of everything with various visual and acoustic effects quite unnecessarily. Views that attack each other produce enough information in itself, one would be happy to follow a group of performers forming an interesting whole without restless movement patterns and stylized clicks.

The show's colorful cast is cast in a way that acts as a strong statement about identity politics and makes the evening a valuable experience.

Swedish version Hanna Åkerfelt, dramaturgy Nina-Maria Häggblom, set and costumes Anna Sinkkonen, lighting Petri Tuhkanen, sound Hanna Mikander, makeup Joonas Lampi. Starring Anna Hultin, Astrid Assefa, Antonia Atarah, Sonia Haga, Patrick Henriksen, Simon Häger, Nina Palmgren, Isabell Sterling, Miiko Toiviainen, Josef Törner, Niklas Åkerfelt.