Review: Väärennetty morsian

The farce doesn’t get any better than this
SO CHINESE, SO CHINESE

The Fake Bride is a great show. Chinese director Kong
Xinyuan has made Finnish actors empathize with the old Chinese
comedy to the fullest.

The Fake Bride is not quite real-Chinese, it’s a mixture of Chinese
and Finnish theatre tradition. In the old Chinese theater, there is no
speech lines. Everything is told through exercise and music. Finnish
I think that’s ballet. In the “real” theatre, you have to talk.


Sami Keski-Vähälä has written a very functional text from the old 1500s
Chinese story from the East, in which the wedding is accompanied by
all kinds of glitches. Brides change, and in the end, we don’t know
Is the bride really the groom or vice versa.

Comedy is born not only from the text, but above all from the facial expressions of the actors,
masks, clothes and deliberate over-acting of Chineseness.
That is what the director has strived for.

“If we can get the audience to laugh from the bottom of their hearts and have a good time, I’m
I haven’t reached my purpose. Since it is a comedy, it is
It is possible to make a performance that combines theatrical traditions – guests
Things or presentations are allowed to change in peace
funny,” says Kong Xinyuan.

But, as Kong Xinyuan also says, at the same time, the Finnish audience will be able to
to catch a glimpse of Chinese theatre tradition.


The fake bride’s sets and stage costumes are authentic Chinese.
The Helsinki City Theatre would hardly have had the chance to
I can’t even afford silk creations.

The music is old Chinese incidental music. Without it, the proposal would not be
whole.


A Finn goes
very Chinese


The central character of The Fake Bride is a married woman, played by
Risto Kaskilahti. He arranges things with money and spring rolls
Hoping for a “wonderful ending”. Kaskilahti is once again in the role of his life,
and hopefully not digging out its TV show It’s There mannerisms from its storage.
Everyone else is impossibly good, too, like Seppo Maijala under the slipper
Eeva-Liisa Haimel as his sturdy wife. Eija
Vilpas suits the role of the meowing widow at least as well as Fakta
Hansu. Jyrki Nousiainen almost steals the play’s final scene
Judge Qiao, who dispenses justice.

Young lovers Reetta Honkakoski , Tuukka Leppänen, Vappu Nalbantoglu,
Sanna Majuri and Hermanni Rask are very active and clearly
enjoy their roles. Majuri and Rask are downright dance-like.

Actual dancers Harri Kuorelahti, Kai Lähdesmäki, Janne Marja-aho and
Unto Nuora makes the audience howl in the stretcher scene.

As a director, Kong Xinyuan has reportedly shown himself how an actor should
moving and been. In such a style of control, there is hardly any need for language,
But not everything has gone quite to the top ten. At the beginning of the first act
There are a few stagnant points, of course they don’t last long, and then there are
Just going and going.

I don’t remember laughing as much in the theatre for a long time as I did
In a fake bride. Finnish Chineseness is irresistible.
On the other hand, the basic story of the play is ancient and applies to all
cultures; Property decides marriages, love comes and love
goes, but the gold remains.


The fake bride is an excellent example of the collaboration of cultures.
The fake bride’s sets and costumes are genuine stuff made in China.
And the Finnish actors also feel almost like real Chinese.