Review: Hukassa on hyvä paikka
No b-culture
Helsinki City Theatre’s musical play captivates young and old alike
Kari Hotakainen: Hukka is a good place. Helsinki City Theatre, small stage. Directed by Kari Väänänen, music by Iiro Rantala, set design and costumes by Magnus Scharmanoff, lighting by Mika Ijäs, sound by Esa Santonen. Cast: Martti Suosalo, Timo Torikka, Susanna Roine, Pekka Huotari, Jyrki Kovaleff, Ulla Tapaninen, Sari Siikander, Lotta Kuusisto and Sanna Monto.
It’s quite clear that the most disgusting thing about little girls in the opinion of little boys is that they want to get married right away. Or to dance. Or in the worst case, both.
The problem with fathers and especially single parents is that they also want to be noticed, live their lives and go to horse races.
Trotting coupons are bought from the kiosk. The only thing that helps the little power boy is to grab the whole kiosk on his shoulders and start dragging it to Tattarisuo. So that dad would stay at home.
Jakomäki is also home to
real people
In these pressures and landscapes, and according to the map, the musical play for the whole family, Hukka on hyvä paikka, written by Kari Hotakainen, takes place in Jakomäki.
The premiere directed by Kari Väänänen with Iiro Rantala’s juicy music was seen on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre.
Adults, go and enjoy the verbal treats of the novelty. Of course, children can also be included, even the smaller ones, although they may not be able to squeeze the juices of Hotakainen’s incomparable wordplay from the performance.
However, there is something to watch, gloriously eccentric guys. Best of all, in a happy ending, everyone, both young and old, understands that there are real and even nice people living in Jakomäki as well.
The plot could be a little more coherent, but in the blessed ending, Kari Hotakainen ties the couples into place, for the joy of the wedding and more. The grandstand will also be able to take part in the giant balloons playing.
The name of the play is also explained in the finale. Lost, away from the gloom of everyday life, is a very good place. That’s where imagination flies, where wishes come true, toil gets its reward like love. Very funny.
The concepts are:
Manna for adults
Indeed, we older ones were almost solved by the stylistic confusions written in the play. Hotakainen compares, catalogs, and combines unrelated things into the same package into a carnival of surprises.
The concepts are often manna for adults, but the children did not fall asleep from them either. There was so much to see, funny clothes, cheerful sets, inspiring playing and best of all, fully flying actors. Lost is a good place was definitely not just children’s theatre for the creators.
Personally, I fell in love most with the H-kiosk salesperson, Sari Siikander, who falls in love with her skirts, and Ulla Tapaninen, the singing caretaker’s wife, who is almost as wonderfully gargling. Not forgetting her husband Jyrki Kovaleff.
Martti Suosalo is appealingly and hilariously serious as Juntti-Mutter, a power boy dragging a kiosk, Pekka Huotari as Humppa-Veikko, who also dreads women’s intentions to marry, and Sanna Roine as the Viluttitanssija who drives him into a corner. Get married and right away!
Lotta Kuusisto and Sanna Monto visit Dance Theatre Rollo as Malmi’s twins, wildly headstrong little girls who are made to dance… They are charming too. Timo Torikka, as a father seeking the right to be heard, brings a suitable counterforce to the wildest of things.
No one is doing that. The entire performance of the City Theatre is the kind of children’s theatre and culture that speaks to the point, praises the joys of the imagination, goes crazy, but also stays on the ground in building relationships.
Talk about b-culture offered to children can be forgotten in the company of this performance.