Playwright: Okko Leo; Translator: Kristian London. At: Akvavit Theatre at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave. Tickets: 800-838-3006 or www.akvavittheatre.org; $15-$20. Runs through Jan. 10
Scandinavian drama didn't end with the early 20th-century deaths of playwrights Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. Yet many U.S. theatergoers would be hard-pressed to name subsequent Scandinavian dramatists.
This is where Akvavit Theatre comes into the picture. Named after a popular Scandinavian liquor, Akvavit Theatre is dedicated to presenting English translations of modern plays from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Akvavit's latest offering is the U.S. premiere of the Finnish comedy The Orchestra, by Okko Leo and translator Kristian London. It's all about a band of has-been Finnish rockers who make a dunderheaded grasp to become relevant again.
At first, The Orchestra plays like a study in character comedy as members of a one-hit wonder band show up in a dressing room to play a wedding gig. There's the childlike Halla ( Tony St. Clair ), who is obsessively concerned about his mobile phone minutes and the behavior of the bride ( Emily Demko ) at a previous wedding. There's also the divorced guitarist Rane ( Steve Herson ), who boasts about his shooting skills, while the music academy-bound young drummer Timi ( Josiah Kumpost ) is understandably perturbed at not being paid for his previous performance. All the while saxophonist Hannu ( Ryan David Heywood ) reacts silently to everything in the background.
Where the plot picks up is when the irresponsible lead singer, Jase ( Jim Poole ), shows up late with a scheme involving Simone ( Bergen Anderson ), a wedding guest who also is a successful former winner of a Finnish reality TV singing competition. But when a pot of the three-meat Finnish stew called Karelian goes missing, things soon spiral into the realm of silly farce.
Clearly, Leo was aiming for comedy on the level of the 1984 faux film documentary This is Spinal Tap to lovingly mock the inflated egos of rockers and their desperation to get back into the limelight. But when Leo steers the play into territory explored much more astutely in Martin Scorsese's 1982 film King of Comedy, The Orchestra starts feeling like warmed-over leftovers instead of something biting and fresh.
Director Brad Akin's production of The Orchestra for Akvavit also might have come off more effectively if the cast was made up of more expert comedians. There are many moments of odd physical comedy bits ( particularly a candy bar gag ) in The Orchestra, but some of the cast members struggle to get laughs out of those moments and the dialogue in general.
The Orchestra may not be as original as it could be, but local audiences should be able to relate to its struggling Finnish rockers whose behavior isn't that far removed from our American ones. And The Orchestra also opens a window to show what's concerning a modern-day playwright in Finland.
