For the Sheer Love of Me

For Sheer Love of Me is a story about the Jalovaara family. The father, Lauri, is a famous television celebrity who dispenses pseudo-psychological advice on relationship crises on his show, while his personal life devolves into chaos around him.

His depressed wife, Tea, is an interior designer who spends her days daydreaming of a more fulfilling life. Their 10-year-old daughter Sylvia, named after the poet Sylvia Plath, is an intelligent, vital child drifting on a collision course with her selfish parents.

Told from Sylvia’s point of view, the play is a well-written, heartbreaking story about how parental self-absorption can lead to near destruction. By play’s end, Sylvia provides the means for renewed intimacy and domestic wholeness.

The play premiered at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki on January 27, 2006, and has been translated into English by Nely Keinanen.

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