A musical adventure the way of Outola
Tatu and Patu, known from numerous children’s books, are adventuring in a musical play for the first time. For experienced writers, a theatre performance is always a different experience, the success of which is ensured by trusted director Sami Rannila.
Tatu and Patu are strange brothers who delight with their curiosity and amaze time and time again with their bizarre inventions that make everyday life easier. Because Tatu and Patu are from Outola, the world we are familiar with is very strange and foreign to them.
“Aino spoke on the phone with our editor. Suddenly, he just started talking about two guys who come from somewhere outside and don’t understand anything about our world,” laughs writer-illustrator Sami Toivonen , referring to his spouse, writer-illustrator Aino Havukainen.
Tatu and Patu had adventures in the Veera books at first, but in reality, Tatu and Patu were invented before Veera.
“In the beginning, we needed someone to tell the boys quite bluntly that now you are wrong. After four Veera books, we learned to tell the story of being an outsider without Veera. We also didn’t come up with any new verbs that Veera could use to correct the boys,” Havukainen continues.
Tatu and Patu have had adventures on theatre stages before, but the City Theatre’s Tatu and Patu in Helsinki is by far the biggest production so far.
“There has been touring theatre where two actors have had to do everything themselves and where all the sets have had to fit in the van,” Toivonen says.
“Helsinki has the other extreme, a large stage. For the first time, we have an actual musical play, and as a new element, there is also dance,” Havukainen adds.
Theatre and film have been a natural continuum for the writer duo, as the characters have always been mobile for them. In the books, movement is realised with successive images, but on stage, movement and sound provide a wider range of tones.
When the characters are transferred from the pages of a book to the stage of a theatre, strong trust is needed between the creators. Havukainen and Toivonen have found common ground with director Sami Rannila , and their collaboration has carried through several productions.
“Making humour is quite sensitive. A professional must understand the grammar of Tatu and Patu, so to speak. Rannila knows how to take the goodies and insights from the books that have already been worked hard and slip them into the manuscript,” Havukainen sums up.
The theatre offers completely new perspectives even for writers who are used to working independently.
“It’s great to experience the direct reactions of the spectators. Feedback on books is always like echoes of the reading moment and reactions. It’s a really uplifting experience when the theatre audience bursts into laughter,” Toivonen says.
Text Maarit Krok