Theater Review | The actor known from the TV series Akuiis is promising in Jurka’s monologue, despite his tenderness

AKA. Finnish premiere 28.9. Theater in Jurka. The show is a joint production with the Lappeenranta City Theatre.

★★★

Theater Jurkka has excelled recently in the field of translated plays. Argentinian Daniel. by J. Meyer monologue written by AKA (Alias) continue on the same line.

The new work is a monologue aimed at young people, in which a racist community breaks a young love. In a variation of the Romeo and Juliet story, Carlos, a teenage boy adopted as a child, has to face a terrible fate at the hands of his girlfriend’s racist family because his adoption process was once unclear.

The family files a criminal complaint against Carlos. The young man has to go to court. In court, his background will be revealed. The ambiguity of the date of birth leads to the fact that he is indeed an adult named Ibrahim, who is accused of raping a minor.

The show succeeds in dealing with the theme of racism.

From the TV series Adults known Carlos Orjuelaan up-and-coming actor of Colombian and Finnish ancestry, knows how to portray a person who retains a certain softness and thoughtfulness believably, even when the twists and turns of the story are horrifying.

Orjuela is captivating, but she could still get more surprising tones out of her expression. Public relations are still fragile.

The fairly one-level text is primarily aimed at young people, who were hardly present in Jurka’s premiere audience. I believe that to some extent also a different performance situation, i.e. one where there are also really young people sitting in the audience, can help the actor to have better contact with the same audience.

What could it be if sign language, references, winks and others were aimed at 15-year-olds and not at the age of the 15-year-old’s parents and grandparents?

You could also get more out of the adolescent boy’s essence if the director Tuomas Parkkinen would have piloted the performance more clearly into the authentic feelings of youth.

As a point of comparison, after the performance, I discovered with my friend Teatteri Taiminen’s shows that travel around schools, where middle-aged actors go to great lengths to catch up with young people’s lives.

Son the innocent “ordinary life” experienced at the beginning is rather some kind of warm-up, even if it could hit all the shades of youth. AKA’s problems are also related to the predictability of control, which also applies to sound and light design. Does every crash told in the text also have to be told with sound?

In the text of the Argentinian playwright, there are very few references to the milieu where the work takes place. Maybe they should have been left in the work for Finnish viewers instead of illustrating the text? A prison is a cage, a candlelit dinner is created to look like that. And so on. Some element that violates the general description is missing.

Although AKA. could touch more deeply on youth, it is still strong in dealing with racism as it is. Thanks to the impressive ending, which opens a multi-layered view of how the innocent definition of another person can slip into infinitely tragic fates.

A healthy reminder of why we need a constitution guaranteeing the equality of people, human rights fighters, safety nets.

When the monologue reaches the tragedy of the end, the direction, the acting, the lights and the set become electrified. At the same time, the illustration of the text ends and everything moves forward deceptively lightly.

AKA is such a packed bomb at the end that it makes the work a setback in a good sense. One that captures thoughts rather than blaming or pointing fingers.

Written by Daniel. J. Meyer, translated into Finnish by Lumi Eronen, directed by Tuomas Parkkinen. Carlos Orjuela on stage, scenography Mimmi Resman, light and sound design Saku Kaukiainen, choreography Ima Iduozee.