Review: Salaa rakas

I’m sure it makes me laugh, a glass….
… German-spiced secret love

I wonder if this is how the German theatre duo Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach guessed in the early 1920s that their play, Der keusche Lebemann – The Chastity Entertainer – would still be performed for the Finnish theatre audience almost 90 years later and that it would be “distributed”. In Finland, people were quite eager to take up the story even from the very beginning, in 1923. On the People’s Stage, however, it was given a more polished name, Kaino rakastaja. The fact that we are now going in the direction of hinting at secret lovers is just as little a coincidence as the fact that a politician ends up as a target of charity.

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Liisa Ryömä’s Finnish translation of the play has a fresh taste for the present day – purposefully following its worn-out sayings. Pentti Kotkaniemi as a distinguished director has implemented the precise strategy of farces, entrances and exits from the stage are handled without traffic jams, each character is given enough time to reveal their intentions with their facial expressions and gestures even before the lines. However, there is no delay in the delivery of the plot, the overall tempo is fast.

The casting is the cornerstone of the narrative. The Helsinki City Theatre is known to have a number of actors whose comedy’s sensitivity to growth is comparable to a miracle pumpkin. There is a lot of laughter in the hall.

The costumes celebrate on a wide scale. The comic looks pompously comical, and in such favorable circumstances, it gives a lot of extra points. Hair supplements, on the other hand, have also been used sparingly.

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Even though the play is lived like a naïve old-fashioned fairy tale, the updater would notice that funnily enough, many things have not changed since those days. Some fathers still dominate families, “sons are sons” and cheat and cheat at the opportunity, and jealousy is probably still met with demands from the man alone. Some women are still able to swallow their humiliation today (although many pay the price in the pot), while an offended man does not fit into any equation.

The cult of the stars was in full swing a century ago and it is one of the ingredients of a German play. If a man had had an affair with a well-known actor, he gained at least the reputation of a hero. That we wouldn’t notice something familiar in that attitude as well….

Comedies tend to exaggerate and make people believe, and in this way they not only create characters that are too one-dimensional, but also reinforce existing notions of human nature. This is also the case here. Secretly, a loved one entertains with all the money and in public. Some degree of questioning wouldn’t hurt, but that’s not on the agenda. Only the type gallery offers opposing forces.

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Santeri Kinnunen’s arsenal of expressions is admirable. He depicts in countless little nuances the transformation of Max, a gray mouse who lives for his work, into a sought-after bachelor. The journey from a brilliant but inhibited facsimile to “circles” takes place quickly but without complications at Julius’s school and through coincidences. Kinnunen then slips into borrowed feathers like a made-to-measure suit. Nothing tightens, nothing stays in the bag. A lovable creation.

Sampo Sarkola’s bright and wonderfully supple salon lion Heinz is also a comical fireworks, as is Asko Sarkola’s skilful industrialist Julius Seibold and Heidi Herala’s secretive ever-feminine Regine Seibold.

Sanna-June Hyde plays the role of the couple’s daughter, the exuberantly childlike Gerty, who may be difficult for today’s young people to relate to. However, Hyde decides to believe in his mission and becomes increasingly tense. One of the highlights of the evening will be Gerty and Heinz’s delicious dance Gumana.

Vuokko Hovatta is a beautiful diva, film star Ria Ray and Eppu Salminen’s fiancé Walter, fierce and hilariously black.

But I did like a snack as well. Namely, the sign girl Hannelore, who went to name episodes in the same way as it is customary in boxing competitions to announce the umpteenth round. Someone said that it is very similar to the Hannelore he met in 1973 in Hamburg. He said he was just as pretty and he (too) had nothing against a little cheating.