The Girl Mutant

The Autio family lives in two different countries: the father in Switzerland, the mother in Finland. The mother, Maria Autio, is an architect. She has stayed in her home country to look after the two teenage daughters Oona and Iina. Oona is a girl mutant, a boy girl who is overshadowed by her brother Antti’s death. She has herself assumed the male role in the family and takes care of her sister and her mother. Iina, on the threshold to adulthood, is searching for her own femininity. She is hypochondriac and fears that her life will end before it has even begun. The girls’ mother is lonely and unhappy. As for their neighbours, a woman called Toini Kaisla clings to her daughter Saara, not allowing the young woman to detach herself from her mother. Upstairs, meanwhile, lives a strange German man who calls himself a doctor. The German ultimately becomes a key figure for the Autio women. They are drawn to this strange man and with his help the knot of problems begins to unravel. The end of the play is hopeful, mother Autio making an important decision, as does the Kaisla daughter. (Tinfo/Sunklo)