Review of LTROI Play in Uppsala (here be spoilers)

[editrice]

Ok, so I went to the premiere yesterday, and want to tell you a little bit about it, as promised! However, as I have no idea what will be considered spoilers to you, and as quite a few of you will probably never be able to see it, unfortunately, I won't be bothering with spoiler tags (so there!).
Consider yourselves warned - if you plan on seeing this, stop reading and come back afterwards to agree or disagree!
a bit incoherent I'm afraid, written in haste!

The play is on a fairly small stage in the basement (about 100 seats) which makes it very intimate. I had a great seat in the third row (of six I think) next to John, so I got all of his reactions as well - I won't tell you about them however, I'll leave that to him if he feels like it. He did like the play a whole lot though, so it's "John-approved".

To start with the scenography: The stage was really not a stage, rather the floor of the room with the seats rising like bleechers on one side. The floor was covered in some kind of light sand that could look like snow or sand respectively. Grey walls all around, "concrete style", with a couple of windows looking out into the courtyard in the center. Jungle-gym was replaced by a big sandbox - worked quite well.
Oskar's room was like a little cave or crevice in one of the walls, filled entirely by a bed.
An interesting thing was that when action was taking place inside a room (like Eli and Håkan talking) one actor stood at the window, while a camera was filming inside the room, projecting the actors live around the wall around the window, creating the effect that the wall seemed see-through. Not sure if I can explain this so it makes sense, but it was quite original.

As for the actors: The poor sod playing Håkan was the replacement for the original actor, made three days before the premiere. He did a great job, all things considered, although his character was due to this the one that jarred the most. Pretty sure that will work itself out during the course of the play, and it wasn't too disturbing.
The actress playing Oskar (Elisabeth Wernesjö) stood out, creating an Oskar thar was quite different from the movies - more high-strung, edgier, but also more broken, defeated. Believable and heart-wrenching at times.
Bahar Pars, playing Eli was perhaps a bit too "womanly" for the part, but I see why they cast her. She and "Oskar" were almost exactly the same height, making their scenes together more intense, more as equals, and as they both are shorter than the rest of the cast, it added to their role as children and made them stand out. She also had a great voice for the part, husky and distinct. I'm not sure if Swedish is her mother toungue (I thought at times I could detect a hint of an accent), but whether it was due to overcoming an accent or just good acting, I liked the effect - it intensified the feeling of language being almost foreign to Eli as well, especially saying things like "i love you" to Håkan or "yippie" to Oskar (in a totally flat, deadpan voice)

Storyline: I liked the fact that they had brought Oskar's mother "back". She was so absent in the movies, and I never liked that. I really was touched by her character in the book, and thought that she explained a lot of Oskar's conflict. In the movies you sort of go "but why doesn't he TELL anyone?" but in the book and the play it's perfectly clear that he's trying to protect his mother. She is so concerned for him and her whole life centers around him - how can he let her know how he suffers?
I also like that we got more of what's going on in Oskar's head than in the films. His anxiety, self-loathing, the worries for his mother. To me, that was something I liked with the book. It made his choices more believable, and the actress was very good at letting her voice break at the right times (like Oskar shouting to Eli "I just want to be with you!"
The bullying scenes were quite disturbing and almost made me cry - especially when they hit Oskar over the cheek and his first reaction is "how can I tell mom?" Most of the other violence happens off stage or hidden/implied.
Zombie Håkan is in it, as is Benke. So is the flashback scenes. However, to be these were expendable, I must say - but that might be personal taste.

I liked a touch where Eli is planning to feed on Oskar the time when he gets his rubic's cube back, and as she leans in to bite him he turns his head and half by mistake kisses her instead. To me, this in the play becomes Eli's turning point, an awakening to a friendship and love long forgotten. Not bad.

As for the end, the sandbox opened and became the pool (clever!), blood was splattered and the policewoman leading the investigation (!) summed it all up (a lot of the dialogue was taken straight from the book).
In the closing scene, Eli sits alone on a box/bench/slab. Oskar walks in with a bag, puts it down, sits down next to her. He holds out his hand, we see the bloody palm. Eli bites her own hand, and then takes Oskar's. As they sit holding hands, mixing blood and smiling at each other, the lights go out.
So, a bit of the epilogue there! Lovely end, I was quite touched by it.

There we go! Feel free to ask questions!

[covenant6452]

Sounds awesome! Great to hear that you liked it and thank you for the review.

[Ash]

A combined LYROI and LTODD? That's marvellous.
Thank you so much for the review.
I have a feeling this will fire-up this board.
After the novel and the film, this is the best it gets!
No cameras allowed? Pity.

[drakkar]

Thanks a lot, editrice!
Funny this, I suddenly felt the urge to see if anyone had posted a review about the play just 9 minutes after you did!

I haven't decided if I should go watch the play yet, but now you've made me curious! Just the merging of the novel and epilogue is reason good enough. It's only a short flight and train trip away, after all.
I am happy to hear that it turned out well. The film proved to me that it actually could work well - the story has so much inner strength and tension that you can cut away much of the "exterior" and still make it work, as you have to do on stage.
I like that they kept Eli's near attack on Oskar, I feel this adds to the story. How explicit did they go about Eli's vampirism, and how did that work out? I mean, in the film this was toned down - which I thing was a great thing, but on stage, you'll have the audience on a greater distance and may have to compensate for that.

I think I'll seen some stills from the bullying; how did they go about the explicit scenes as the attack on Jocke, the basement blood mixing and subsequent attack on Virginia?

[jonjon_z]

Thank you so much for the review! It's very descriptive and I can picture the see-through wall as you explained it. I'm happy to know John was present and that he gave approval. My only question is, was there any reference to Eli's erm... past? And why Eli is "not a girl"(?) In the movie we get a hint of it. Just curious.

[nithr]

http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article12744555.ab

review and a picture.

[gary13136]

Bahar Pars has been in a Swedish movie entitled "When Darkness Falls". According to a review, she played the teenage daughter of a foreign family that had settled in Sweden. So most likely she is not Swedish by birth. And while Lina Leandersson is Swedish by birth, her father was Iranian. So picking Bahar Pars could have been because just about any actress would have been compared to Lina Leandersson. And Lina Leandersson very much resembled the "book" Eli. So they picked an experienced actress who was probably the best choice. Allowing of course for the fact that they were using adults for children's roles. It would appear that they made a good choice.

It would be nice if this could someday be filmed (fingers crossed).

[Jeannedeorleans]

Ahh...That's awsome.

[covenant6452]

http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article12744555.ab

review and a picture.

Has anybody looked hard at that photo?
Would that be the moment Oskar is turned?
Looks like it was quite a traumatic instant-turning doesn't it?

[editrice]

I'll try to answer some questions!
Jocke was pulled into a "drain pipe" when killed, so we could only see his legs twitching. Virginia and Lacke aren't in it.
In the blood mixing, Oskar cuts his hand and Eli tries to hold herself back, although there we actually got to see fangs. In the end, she runs away leaving Oskar with growing insight.
As for Eli's change, she/he tries to tell Oskar that she's not a girl, but he doesn't understand (with lines straight out of the book). After showering when he first doesn't give her permission to come in, Eli comes out dressed in a robe and "flashes" Oskar - "Now you know". We also got the flashback scene, althought only retold by another actor, with light projections creating the halls and Oskar's face reflecting the horror of what he "sees".

And the picture in Aftonbladet is zombie Håkan attacking Eli.