Review: Väärennetty morsian

HILARIOUS CHINESE MARRIAGE TRADE

The Helsinki City Theatre’s other major novelty in early spring is Sami Keski-Vähälä’s play The Fake Bride, based on an old Chinese folk tale. Whereas in China the story is usually presented as musical theatre, we have a comedic spoken theatre version.


The pilot of The Fake Bride is the experienced director-actor Kong Xinyuan, who is visiting Finland for the third time. Assistant director-producer Tan Longjian , on the other hand, graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 1994 as the first foreign student to graduate with a master’s degree in folk music. The performance, which was completed on the initiative of theatre director Asko Sarkola and after years of effort, is an excellent example of the successful interaction of two different cultures.

The look of the performance is mainly Chinese, as the set designer and costume designers also come from China. The gorgeous costumes and wigs are also made in China. Chinese instructions are also behind the implementation of make-ups, among other things.

Doctor Ping, Widow Sun and Shopkeeper Pei all want to have their children in the so-called “Stallion”. good marriages. However, cross-loves and various misunderstandings mess up the parents’ plans and a delicious and viewer-friendly comedy is built on funny characters and appropriately baked in anachronisms.

The performance is all about Zhang, played by Risto Kaskilahti . A man in a woman’s clothes is such a common sight in Finland these days that an actor has to be unusually good for the thing to work.<BR
And Kaskilahti is known to be a top expert, under whose leadership the entire Finnish cast lights up in an unusually wonderful atmosphere.


Eija Vilppas ‘ widow Sun, Pekka Huotari’s shopkeeper Pei and Seppo Maijala’s excellent Dr. Ping, who is under his wife’s (Eeva-Liisa Haimelin) slipper, are all absolutely delicious guys, and there is nothing wrong with the trio of Reetta Honkakoski, Tuukka Leppänen, Vappu Nalbantoglu, Hermanni Rask and Hannes Suominen.


Sanna Majuri is the excellent young servant of the Pings, and dancers Harri Kuorelahti, Kai Lähdesmäki, Janne Marja-aho and Unto Nuora , who can be seen as porters and servants of justice, among others, bring a suitable dose of extra energy and speed to the performance. Jyrki Nousiainen is the judge in the case, Qiao.