Thespian Subconscious?

What's on a man's mind when he's playing somebody else?

We've been performing a brilliant play called Panic throughout the winter season. Author Mika Myllyaho has written a clever comedy about the existential crisis and relationship tangles of thirtysomething men.

Leo, an engineer by profession, is deeply distressed and disoriented after his wife expresses her opinion that he ought to get his act together and think their relationship through while on a seven-day job assignment abroad.

Instead of travelling, he turns to drink, then crashes his best friend's apartment and seeks help in the form of quick therapy.

After some coaxing the graphic designer Max agrees to help, and declares that Leo the engineer needs serious self-reflection. However, Max's brother Joni, a testosterone-driven and ostentiously macho journalist, disagrees with his brother completely.

This is what the character is drawing while two of his friends have a heated discussion about the best method of therapy for him. Leo's character has a new age tape playing on his headphones, and he is supposed to be thinking of a nice and cosy childhood place.

The audience never gets a glimpse of the watercolour drawing, only his fellow actors do. So who knows, maybe one motivation is to bring about corpsing (make the opposite actor laugh).


PS. The image borders on obscenity. Apologies if it disturbs someone.