https://www.hbl.fi/artikel/komiskt-och-pa-allvar-om-glamour-och-missbruk/
The Betty Show explores the popular cultural and commercial Marilyn Monroe image of the female addict.
The Betty Show
Text: Asta Honkamaa, Rosanna Kemppi, Sara Melleri, Annika Poijärvi and Kreeta Salminen. Directed by Sara Melleri. Set design: Tero Kuitunen. Costume: Auli Turtiainen. Light design: Julia Jäntti. Sound: Olli Valkola. Video: Jonatan Sundström. Butocoreography: Ken Mai. Make-up design: Petra Kuntsi.
On stage: Asta Honkamaa, Rosanna Kemppi, Sara Melleri, Annika Poijärvi and Kreeta Salminen.
Delta Venus and the National Theatre's performance 29.10.
The Betty Show is an orgy of lace, sequins, platinum blonde curls and carbon black, smeared eyeliner. The five "bettys" are hard-styled vamps and their stage is equally glamorously adorned with undulating draperies of cut and glossy satin fabric.
On the National Theatre's Vallila stage, the five actors Asta Honkamaa, Rosanna Kemppi, Sara Melleri, Annika Poijärvi and Kreeta Salminen take turns taking on the role of Betty, a generic figure used to explore female addiction. The quintet is the performing arts group Delta Venus, which have also written the script.
Pills and Friday wine
The theme of addiction is not in itself cheerful, but when a large portion of humor and old-fashioned Hollywood glamor are mixed in, it becomes easier and more enticing to confront it. The title's subtitle "A Fantasy About Addiction" is descriptive because it is also the popular cultural and commercial Marilyn Monroe image of the female addict that the show examines.
Betty is a mix of Hollywood star and domestic Suomi Filmi starlet. From time to time, a contemporary single mother also makes her entrance on stage, mixing her Friday wine with anti-anxiety drugs while the children sleep and the TV entertainment program buzzes on.
It sounds tragic, and sometimes the performance is, but at the same time, both the text and Sara Melleri's directing manage to bring in a quirky and irresistible humor. This also applies to the portrayal where Sara Melleri herself shines as the comedian, but also Asta Honkamaa enchants in the role sensationalist host who unabashedly revel in her guests' misery. Almost as festive is her guest, Kreeta Salminen, who, like a Miss Finland candidate, mechanically and conscientiously answers questions about hobbies, pastries and her addiction.
Aestheticization of the addict
Not all parts of the performance are as ambiguous and interesting, and at some point the design slips into what the work also criticizes, namely an aestheticization and exoticization of the female addict.
In other respects, the Delta Venus show gives evidence of an exciting artistry that gives more flavor. Sure, it's breathtaking and awful with a story that begins with bubbling champagne and ends with shitty sheets, and which manages to be grotesquely comic and at the same time empathetic and genuinely gripping.
Isabella Rothberg (Theater Editor)