Purge

Yesterday I saw the "Purge" at LaMama Theater. It's a play, and a novel, by a Finnish writer Sofi Oksanen. I had read the novel a couple of years ago when it won the literary award Finlandia, and the story, which deals with women's abuse and rape, human trafficking, war, desperation, strength, and love, made a great impression on me. It is a work of fiction, but it is something that could have happened and could be happening now...whether in Estonia, Rwanda, or Congo. It is very disturbing to think how close to truth the story may be. The play was great, especially the women in it were fabulous, particularly the girl who played Zara, unfortunately I don't have her name because I threw the playbill out by mistake.. A semi-famous Finnish actor was also in the cast, Peter Franzen, or at least his somewhat famous in Finland. He played Martin, and his performance was ok. The only thing that annoyed me a little about the play was the ending, which was different in the novel, more dramatic and justified, because Aliide redeems herself by saving Zara. The ending in the play was more ambivalent, maybe more thought provoking, but not as believable. In any case, I am happy that I had the opportunity to go see the play and did so with dear friends with whom we will probably go back and discuss it many times to come.