Kortesjärvi Ylikylä Youth Association was awarded the rights to perform the play Father by French author Florian Zeller. Now it is about to premiere at the end of Remembrance Week next Saturday in South Ostrobothnia.
The play tells the story of Aarne, who is suffering from memory loss. The story of how memory crumbles piece by piece. At the same time, autumn leaves fall from the trees outside, leaf by leaf, and none of them ever return.
– Aarne goes through quite a range of emotions in the play: there is crying, laughter, joy, sadness, kindness, moodiness, courage and tenderness. It’s a very versatile role, Jouko Mäkinen explains.
Jouko Mäkinen admits that the amateur actor’s dive into the mind of Aarne, who has Alzheimer’s disease, has been demanding, tough and scary.
– A lot of Finns suffer from memory loss in some way, and never know about the future. I’m getting old too. Of course, I do crossword puzzles and I started piano lessons.
Illness of relatives
Memory disorders are often perceived as illnesses of relatives. They suffer when a close person slowly fades into the unreachable.
– Maybe he notices, but denies it. The daughter is burdened by a sense of duty, because it is about her own father and his well-being. This is also the daughter’s growth story.
Challenges for the public too
– There is a lot of credit on the fact that the resting heart rate will be below a couple of hundred by the premiere, Autio grins.
Joonas Autio himself has gone through the loss of his grandmother to dementia at the same time as the youth club was preparing for the play. The play’s empty mug takes his thoughts to the moments spent at his grandmother’s bedside.
If there is a challenge for the actors in the text, the audience will also have it. The play does not proceed chronologically, but contains flashbacks and different levels.
– Just as a person with amnesia remembers and on the other hand confuses or imagines things.
The director has tried, among other things, to make the viewer’s work easier with light dramaturgy.
– Although the topic is dark, this is not a dark play. This is full of sitcoms.
The director states that to \”stay on the bandwagon\ the audience does not need to make sense of the show.
– The most important thing is to take in the play with all your senses. You don’t always have to understand, you have to feel and experience.
The youth club of Kortesjärvi Ylikylä wants to dispel the fears and feelings of shame still associated with memory disorders and to increase understanding towards memory disorders with its bold choice of plays.
Commendations for memory-friendly actions
Ylikylä’s play team will be awarded at Saturday’s premiere. In honor of the memory week, the memory association of South Ostrobothnia pays attention to the memory-friendly actions of the people of Ostrobothnia with two recognitions. The villagers of Ylık are poking this year’s prize.
Another recognition of the memory association is given to the multiprofessional working group of the South Ostrobothnia hospital district, which has created a service chain model for people with memory problems on an electronic platform. It serves as a source of information for people interested in memory puzzles, people with memory problems and their loved ones, and professionals as well.
An all-day seminar on the service chain model for dementia patients will be held at Seinäjoki Central Hospital tomorrow, Thursday. Muistyyhdistys hands over the note to the working group in this seminar.