Review: Risto Räppääjä ja villi kone
A favorite character also bites on stage
THE BOISTEROUS AND INSTRUCTIVE RISTO THE RAPPER
The Risto the Rapper phenomenon, which is rapidly becoming a classic of children’s culture, will continue at the Helsinki City Theatre. Even if you had almost managed to get past that red-haired boy who raps in books, movies and the theatre, you can easily get into the world spiced up with upside-down humour in the joyful children’s musical comedy Ricky the Rapper and the Wild Machine.
The play, written by Sinikka and Tiina Nopola and dramatised by them and director Katja Krohn , is loosely based on the sisters’ novel of the same name. The summer holidays are about to begin, life is not bad and Risto lives with his aunt Rauha as before, but something has changed.
A lively and boisterous performance
The neighbor Nelli-Nuudelipää doesn’t feel like going for a swim because there is an interview with his teen idol Ville Pyry on TV.
Rauha worries about Risto’s exclusion and gets a computer so that Risto can get to Messenger or Kissinger, where all the young people are today.
The wild machine locks Risto in his room for days to play smashing games, and even Lindberg, the original bachelor upstairs, is not immune to the temptations of the games. Others also have their own obsessions; Nelli longs for Pyry and Rauha sinks into romance.
Pizza falls
With the unbridled verbiage of the dice and the direction that tears apart Krohn’s farce, musical, and youth culture clichés, the educational story is turned into a lively and boisterous performance.
Humour is aimed at both adults and children. People are worried about their children’s free time, but there is also a spike in parents who have forgotten their laptops and the internet.
Rauha orders and Risto eats endless 8-number pizzas and the doors slam as the pizza delivery men run. It creates an excellent and precisely paced farce scene. At times, the whole group runs after the cable around Antti Mattila’s set design, which fits nicely into the world of the performance.
Teenage vibes
Paavo Kerosuo, who has rapped rhythmically as Risto before, is relatable and sympathetic. Sanna-June Hyde is the sweet and already teenage picky Nelli.
As crazy adults, Annu Valonen’s aunt Rauha and Santeri Kinnunen, who shows off his comedic skills as Lindberg, are hilarious.
The two-person band Pizzapappa ja poika ( Tommi Lindell and Yrjänä Sauros ) responds to the work about the soundscape with songs and burps.
Risto’s Räppäys kulkee and Ville Pyry’s ( Sami Uotila ) hit song Sä oot kiva, mä oon kiva is a giggling parody of indifferent pop songs. Otherwise, the music of Iiro Rantala , who has been responsible for many of Risto Räppääjat’s compositions, will not really get going this time.
Risto and Nelli have moved on to a more teenage vibe, but the age recommendation is still from five upwards. At least the preschooler found absurd fun, but the performance also raised a lot of talk about what is too much and appropriately.
The performance also has its scary moments. Risto gets into the world of computer games physically and quite a few monsters emerge from there.
The world of games has been implemented impressively fast-paced. Their danger is not pointed out with the finger raised, but their fascination is admitted, otherwise they would not be a problem.