Review: Sotta Pyttynen

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Sotta Pyttynen

Making theatre for children is more or less the most difficult challenge a theatre group can take. You need a proper script, wholehearted direction and internalized acting. Children cannot be fooled as an audience.

Sotta Pyttynen, which will be performed at the Helsinki City Theatre, meets these requirements. Katja Krohn has made a light-hearted, anarchist and at the same time funny and dramatic play about a grandfather who is just rubbish and a grandson who has been raised by anything but a messy mother.

Sotta Pyttynen is played by Jyrki Nousiainen and Iiro Pyttynen by Panu Vauhkonen. Both are doing a great job. When the conversations are partly rhymed and the text is flashy, it is not a simple thing to convey it to such a young audience. The performance works well, as they have invested in properly painted backdrops, light and sound effects, and completed direction.

The drama of the performance grows from the clear awareness that tenderness and love can solve almost everything. Because what else is mess and confusion but a different order. That’s a line that sums up the message of the performance

Hufvudstadsbladet 19.3.2003 Karmela Belinki

translated by Katja Krohn.

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