Riko Eklundh has enchanted theater stages for over 30 years. Still, out of hundreds of characters, only two have been homosexuals, like Eklundh himself.
Actress Riko Eklundh, 58, will take the stage of the Helsinki City Theater this fall in the play Röda Rummet. It is a special play for Eklund in the sense that it is the second role in a career spanning more than thirty years in which the character is homosexual.
– The theater world has been very heteronormative. On stage, this is only my second role where the character is gay. So to think, since 1985, another role.
Eklundh is homosexual himself and feels that the role is particularly important precisely because he belongs to a sexual minority.
– And it’s not that someone else got these roles in the theater, they simply haven’t existed. However, in the last ten years, the situation has been different, although I have not yet had this happen to me.
The Röda Rummet play has important details for Eklund. Henri Kärkkäinen
He considers the role extremely important to him, even though he describes his character as quite eccentric.
– The character I play is a rather special uncle. There is also a level of identification with him, such as the fact that he is interested in men. Another relatable thing about him is that he thinks the most important thing in life is the stories of all of us. I can agree with that.
Riko Eklundh spent the whole summer in Turku’s outer archipelago. Henri Kärkkäinen
Röda rooms tells about a young writer who uses a newspaper advertisement to find an apartment and promises to write a book in return. When a gentleman who lives alone has the home of his dreams to offer, the young man finds himself involved in a strange game. He begins to write down a story that takes him into the labyrinth of desire and subjugation in Helsinki at night. The bilingual play has been directed by Milja Sarkola.
Otherwise, the actor’s everyday life revolves around singing gigs and the book in progress. The events of the book take place in an archipelago very dear to Eklund.
– I’m not a writer at all, but this is now the third book I’m writing. I spent my summer in Turku’s outer archipelago, where I have an absolutely crazy place, my book is also about this place.