Review: Kielletyt laulut

System Black Shadows

The Forbidden Songs cabaret brings everyday life to the fore

Reinterpreting the recent past has become fashionable. In cinemas, Valkyria, which tells the story of an anti-Hitler conspiracy, andFrost/Nixon, which returns to the reasons for US President Richard Nixon’s forced resignation, gather viewers. The Helsinki City Theatre’s cabaret Forbidden Songs , which highlights the terror the Soviet Union directed at its citizens and the harsh everyday life associated with it, can be read in the same genre.

Not so long ago, the band AgitProp propagated the Soviet system to the Finns through song. The model was taken from across the eastern border, and the message got through well, especially in the conditions of the 1970s. Many middle-aged and older people still listen to this music in a nostalgic mood.

Forbidden Songs is an anti-agitprop, i.e. a Brechtian-style grotesque cabaret that brings greetings from the Siberian taiga, the Stalin Canal and the Black Sea coast of Odessa, among others. Vladimir Vysotsky plays a central role in the performance, as he acted as an everyday critic of the Soviet system with downright harrowing self-sacrifice and thus voluntarily remained outside the system. In a way, Vysotsky was rehabilitated eight years after his death in 1988 at a major concert in Moscow to celebrate his 50th birthday. He even received a stamp in 1999.

The Forbidden Songs has been dramatized and directed by Pirkko Saisio, whose karma also plays a significant role in the entire performance. Equally convincing is Jonna Järnefelt, who stretches to many roles according to the content of different songs. Janne Marja-aho reaches the level of grotesque both as Madame Banjou and as a numb serial killer.

The music is provided by Jussi Tuurna, Sara Pajula and Topi Korhonen. Pajula and his double bass achieve incredible performances. An hour and 20 minutes and 20 songs of the performance go by like an instant. There seemed to be no end to the applause at Thursday’s premiere.

Saisio has done a great job in Forbidden Songs. He is the dramatizer, director and key performer of the performance, but also the lyricist and translator of many songs. Kaj Chydenius and Pirjo Honkasalo are also among the translators of the songs.

Vysotsky was popularized in Finland by Mika and Turkka Mali. In smaller circles, Vysotsky has been recorded in several places in Finland. Now, however, the moods of the songs of Vysotsky and his kindred spirits feel very authentic in the midst of car wrecks and misery.