Review: Iloisiin kuulemiin ja näkemiin
LISTEN, NOSTALGIA!
The Helsinki City Theatre serves a treat for nostalgia hunger in Pasila. Happy Hearing and Goodbye is a musical comedy that takes the viewer through Finland’s recent history from the Helsinki Olympic year almost to the present day.
The performance dives into the world of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) and popular music. Finland’s post-war history is examined through the editorial staff of the legendary Päiväpeili. There is no need to look for any particular plot or logical story in the performance.
The performance is in the middle ground between cabaret, sketch entertainment and musical evenings. The exhibition includes photo compilations and sound samples from different decades.
The scriptwriters are Outi Pop , an old fox in the radio industry, and historian Jukka Relander. The concoction has been put together by comedy specialist Mikko Kivinen.
Variegated editorial team
The editorial staff of Päiväpei is bustling with a group of invented characters, although they bring memories of real people and especially eras. The heart of the editorial team is the main announcer Tyyne Kälpäkkä, the lovely Riitta Havukainen.
The eternal summer reporter Miss Kylmä ( Hanna Vahtikari ) seems to do everyone’s work, while the right and left wings of the editorial office, journalists Pekkala and Korpikari ( Kari Mattila and Jari Pehkonen ), take turns on the shelf. The colour red and feminism are brought to Reporadio by the eternal Taisto member, Astrid Vaara ( Leena Rapola ). The boss, played by Seppo Maijala , tries to make art as much in the middle as he can.
The general strike, the note crisis and student radicalism flash through the editorial staff, and popular culture also invades the Mirror of the Day. The spirit of Kekkonen hovers over everything.
Oh, those times
Decades are progressed chronologically until Nico, played by Antti Timonen , a 2000s success imbued with different media, competitive spirit and teamwork, mixes things up. Nico is accompanied by criticism of modern society and a breath of fresh air from the current crises of the Finnish Broadcasting Company. However, the performance stays firmly on the side of nostalgia, it used to be better.
Despite the knowledgeable group of artists, the performance has an aftertaste of incompleteness and lack of specification.
The text contains a lot of apt throws and reminiscent quips, but the performance mainly relies on the most typical and worn-out observations about our history.
The music choices are also the most obvious. The village road is quiet, sometimes people ask whose troops you are standing in, the motorway is hot and finally Sex takes you and the taxi brings. On stage, you will see funny and touching interpretations of familiar songs, which happily play with the original performers of the songs.
The power, skill and interpretation of singing can be found in the actors of the City Theatre. Sami Hokkanen, Vuokko Hovatta, Pertti Koivula, Merja Larivaara, Petja Lähde, Sanna Majuri and Ursula Salo , supported by a four-piece orchestra, will perform the most memorable songs of the cavalcade of decades.