Review: Pappas pojkar

THINGS GO WRONG AT A FUNERAL

Instead of Finnish anxiety, it’s refreshing to watch a British comedy in the theatre. Pappas pojkar is not idle laughter, but the play is a skilfully written comedy built around a serious matter.

Pappas pojkar (Losing Louis), which premiered in London in 2005, is at the same time a light-hearted and touching play about brothers who meet years later at their father’s funeral. The older brother (Sixten Lundberg) is worse off than them: his hair is thinning, his wife is getting older, his child is marginalized, and he even has a Nissan as a car.

The wife of a highly educated little brother (Nicke Lignell) is slim and stylish, the twins graduate with high grades and the family comes to the funeral in a Jaguar and Ferrari. Of course, not everything is as it seems, and like a comedy, things start to go wrong from the moment the hearse breaks down. In the midst of unsuccessful funeral arrangements, the brothers and their wives have to face the unresolved issues of their past.

Everything takes place on the stage of Lilla Teatern in one bedroom. The time level varies between the 50s and the present day, but the sets are not moved. The performance is stripped of theatrical technical gimmicks, and the focus is on acting. Under Pentti Kotkaniemi’s direction, the actors create a snappy dialogue and bring out the nuances of the text. The Swedish in the play is quite understandable for a native speaker of Finnish, difficult literary expressions are hardly cultivated.

The play’s scriptwriter, Simon Mendes da Costas, has a Jewish background, and this is also reflected in the text. The family has a Jewish background, but the tradition is being shaken both in the 50s and today. In the Finnish environment, the subject does not seem very everyday, but the translation and direction have clearly not wanted to change the text, the names of the characters or the setting of the events.


Pia Runnakko’s role as the older brother’s vulgar wife Sheila is the most delicious in the play, and the performance is at its most raucous just when Runnakko gets to speak. Her comedic talent is well known, of course, but Sheila’s role is a hit with Runnako.

His replications, gestures, and timing make the audience howl with laughter. And yet, while her character is funny, she also feels sorry for her.

Runnakko and Sixten Lundberg (Tony) are a small-minded married couple whose insecurity and jealousy are familiar from everyday depictions of people.

Nicke Lignell (little brother Reggie) and Mia Hafrén (Elisabeth) play a successful couple whose relationship turns out to be anything but serene.

In the scenes of the 50s, the gaze turns to Irmeli Toivanen’s delightful costumes that reflect the spirit of the time. Sampo Sarkola , who plays the brothers’ father, slips naturally into a 50s dad who is trapped by two women. His simple wife (Maria Lundström) gets a rival in the sharp-headed Bella (Edith Holmström). Secrets are created, and in the play it happens, as is often claimed: everything is revealed in the end.