Review: Viimeinen sikari

It works after all

The story of Hungarian Ferenc Molnár’s Liliom on the big stage of the Helsinki City Theatre is already over. It received 28 performances. The Last Cigar, written and directed by Bengt Ahlfors, a comedy for elderly people starring Lasse Pöysti and Tea Ista, has been transferred to the major repertoire.


The premiere of The Last Cigar was seen on the small stage of the City Theatre last spring. The news of the transfer made me fear the worst. What happens to an intimate performance by four actors, what happens to the expression itself, when the interpretation is moved to a crowd twice as large?

I had to go and see it. And surprise, surprise, it worked after all. It was proven that talk about the actors’ professionalism is not just nonsense. They moved The Last Cigar to the new premises almost unforcedly. The duration of the performance also stretched as much as the intermission took up. It is always a little longer.

The ageing citizens of an ageing Finland want to watch plays that deal with the problems of ageing. And preferably semi-comedies like The Last Cigar. Not anxiety, but liberation in the face of shared feelings.

The play was also suitable for the big side in the sense that There are no very secret plots in The Last Cigar and no nuances in the performance that require a close-up. The play is a monologue written for Lasse Pöysti, especially in the beginning, in practice a kind of lecture that is aimed directly at the audience.

In addition, the majority of the library is used to a light-hearted repertoire. Unfortunately, Liliom may be there too much, The Last Cigar is not.

The Stalls were full on Tuesday. Balcony seats for The Last Cigar are not sold, even if there is demand. Charter buses filled the parking spaces of the City Theatre this time as well, and the rest of the spring seems to be fully booked.

Worries about the off-taste of the money and the forced dismantling of queues were unnecessary this time, but the basic question is still interesting.

Is a theatre performance the art that can be thrown anywhere? Or is it an entity tied to its own history, down to the finishing touches of the level of expression?
There seem to be two answers. Yes and no. It depends on the play, it depends on the actors.
In the autumn, The Last Cigar will apparently return to the small side, perhaps to the relief of the creators as well.