The Orchestra: A Study in Solidarity (Orkesteri – The Everlast. Tutkielma solidaarisuudesta) is a sister play to Pitch (Kenttä). The play asks the question of whether communality is possible.
In the play, the members of a down-on-its-luck wedding band that has seen better days are acting like a listed company operating under the market approach, taking advantage of their fellow man and engaging in ruthless exploitation. In the community formed by the band, the members are either driven by self-interest, cynical or opportunistic, each of them having internalised - or trying to internalise - the rules of the game. Leo suggests solidarity has become the employer’s rhetoric.
These days, employees are asked to show solidarity towards the employer, as employees are expected to support the company’s risk-taking by working for free and accepting interminable layoffs and unfathomable cutbacks in an uncontrollable market situation.
In the backstage room of a community centre – a closed space typical of Leo’s plays – the individuals are forgotten and alienated and real life seems to be somewhere else entirely. The band is purely an instrument of power, a façade purchased as a temporary element in the lives of real people, lives that the band members will never truly play a part in. The wall between the wedding and the backstage room stands tall. The chasm between the social classes has grown so large that it is no longer questioned. What options does the band have? Leo: “The band’s only option is a utopian illusion that achieves its unrealistic fulfilment in a hostage situation in the form of rider demands.”
Don’t let the subtitle “a study in solidarity” fool you. Leo writes popular politics. He writes politically incorrect text that makes the audience and readers’ laughter revealing. We seem to have a tacit agreement to laugh at that which we have blocked out. In this comedy, the situation assumes absurd proportions. For example, the men’s own dreams and fantasies are as superficial as the play’s image of women, which takes shape in Finnish Idol winner Simone Butterfly.
1F, 4M, orchestra
ACT 1
We are in the back room of a community center or the like. There is direct access to a kitchen or kitchenette. Soundscape: hubbub. An enormous stage is being erected at a nearby stadium, occasionally cutting into the sounds of a wedding at the community center.
SCENE 1
A bride aimlessly shambles around outside the community center. The celebration is being held indoors. The bride disappears inside. Comes back out a moment later carrying large tubs, walks down into the yard and dumps them the nearest patch of weeds. The weeds are covered in brown slop.
SCENE 2
Halla is shadowboxing. He has been here for a while, but doesn’t appear to be the least bit perturbed. As a matter of fact, it’s clear that he showed up early on purpose. Rane enters.
HALLA
Is Jase here yet?
RANE
No.
HALLA
Oh.
RANE
You’re the only one here?
HALLA
Nope.
RANE
-
HALLA
You’re here too.
RANE
Indeed I am.
Pause.
HALLA
You come from the hospital?
RANE
Yeah. Or I was at the shooting range first.
HALLA
Your dad’s the one in the hospital, right?
RANE
Yeah.
HALLA
How’s he doing?
RANE
They say he has a few days left, maybe weeks.
HALLA
That sucks.
RANE
It does.
HALLA
Jase isn’t here yet?
RANE
Nope.
HALLA
Oh.
RANE
Did he call?
HALLA
Jase?
RANE
Yeah.
HALLA
Me?
RANE
Yeah.
HALLA
No.
RANE
He called me.
HALLA
Jase?
RANE
Yup.
HALLA
You know, when we were at that gig last month and she was –
RANE
Who?
(...)
Translated by Kristian London
