Review: Pappas pojkar

BETTER A GOOD COMEDY THAN A BAD TRAGEDY

Pappas pojkar, a rejoicing by the English composer Simon Mendes da Costa, which has sailed into the Lilla Teatern programme, offers an evening entertainment of just under three hours, directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi. And to refer to an exchange of opinions in recent weeks: better a good comedy than a bad tragedy.

Mendes da Costa came from great obscurity to the limelight of the London theatre world with the play Losing Louis. Soon, the play popped up in different parts of the world, including in Tampere under the name Mullan alla.

The fact that Mendes da Costa came out of nowhere was underlined by the fact that he had begun writing the play while sitting on a train on his way to Scotland. He also confirmed this when he visited the premiere in Helsinki. Before that train journey, he had been in the computer industry for a long time. In his longing for company, he had sought out the circle of amateur actors. When the relationship with the found acquaintance broke down, the man changed scenery to the writers’ club.

When he was asked what kind of plays he had written, he was faced with a real situation – luckily he was travelling by train.

The story of Pappas pojkar is familiar: the head of the family, hiding various skeletons in his closets, dies, and his middle-aged sons and their wives meet each other at a funeral for the first time in a long time. Everything takes place in the bedroom, which is used for different purposes by different characters in the play.

It is a pleasure to watch the skilled work of the actors, Sixten Lundberg and Nicke Lignell dominate the stage as grandpa’s sons, Pia Runnakko shoots a few comedic full-fledged ones.

Mendes da Costa, who watched the premiere, said that he understood from the actors’ gestures what was going on.