Review: Sateenkaaren taa

THE ARTIST’S LAST ACT

Susanna Haavisto shines as a tragic star at the end of her life.

Judy Garland, the great favorite of Hollywood’s golden age, could certainly easily be turned into a grand and spectacular musical spectacle, but playwright Peter Quilter has settled for a different solution. The novelty, which premiered in Pasila on Thursday evening, has only three actors and two musicians; Nevertheless, the result is an impressive depiction of the tragic fate of a great artist and a musically very successful whole, which is likely to become yet another great audience favourite in the City Theatre’s repertoire.

With the power of pills

The time of the event is around Christmas in 1968 and the venue is the small suite of the Ritz Hotel in London. Judy Garland has arrived in the city with the intention of performing for six weeks on a concert tour, even though her life is a very fragile survival both on stage and behind it. There is a new fiancé, Mickey Deans, who also serves as Judy’s manager, and a loyal gay pianist and close friend Anthony. The intimate episodes and moments that take place in the hotel room are then cut from time to time for the performances of this last concert tour.
Judy Garland’s life was full of drama and conflict, and from this point of view, Peter Quilter describes the great artist’s final battle in the cross-currents of longing for love and the desire to perform. Despite the drama in the hotel room and their ragged life, the audience still loved Judy and her stage radiance, even though the last tour didn’t quite go as planned. The enchantment of the fragile and sensitive woman was still effective. In the story, two of his closest in recent times have to endure the star’s pacing and whims, as sometimes just going on stage causes enormous difficulties. Sometimes it requires medication and liquor, even if it is given involuntarily by loved ones.
The undertone of the play is clearly tragic, but it also has a smooth sitcom. You could say that there is a smile through tears.

Amazing bravura

The role of Judy Garland in the play is certainly a dream role for many actresses, and Susanna Haavisto will make the most of it. We’ve seen examples of his versatile skills and ability to throw himself fully into his roles before, and now he’s doing the same, perhaps better than ever. When the character being portrayed is known to so many, I would say a larger-than-life character, it seems almost impossible that someone could succeed in the role as brilliantly as Haavisto is doing now. The illusion is created as if the stage is really Judy Garland, not just the actress who plays her. His appearance is already very fragile Garland-like, and when he begins to perform the star’s evergreen tones, his voice also strikingly reminds me of Garland; The same rough and tender vocal range is used. Violent mood swings from moments of joy to deep depression are completely under Haavisto’s control. In the auditorium, the play’s writer Peter Quilter, who was a guest, also seemed to be impressed by his performance when he was asked to be flowered on stage after the performance.
The other two roles in the play threaten to be slightly overshadowed by Judy, even though they both have their own important roles. Petja Lähde plays Mickey, who is the last husband and is a fascinatingly two-pronged person. There is no doubt about his genuine feelings for Judy, but at the same time, as a manager, he surely knows that he will benefit from his future wife’s success all the time. Her character can be seen as a combination of the people who really cared about Judy and, on the other hand, those who just winged the publicity and fame that was detached from her.

The pianist friend Mickey, played by Santeri Kinnunen, is a fictional character created by the writer who has long wanted to take Judy out of the world she is already quite tired of. Kinnunen’s Mickey is a friendly and cordial character in the play, but not a clown, as homosexuals are easily portrayed in many similar contexts. Kinnunen brings humour to the play that lightens the tragic nature of the events.
The main part of the play’s events takes place in a suite set by Markus Tsokkinen , which is just as boring as hotel rooms usually are. However, it also turns into a concert stage very quickly and smoothly. Tuomas Kesälä and Juha Tikka accompanied Haavisto’s wonderful interpretations nicely. The play’s finale, Over The Rainbow , sensitized the audience just in time for the journey home.