Review: Kukkaistyttö

The capricious Flower Girl

George Bernard Shaw: The Flower Girl. Translated and directed by Kari Heiskanen. Set design: Katariina Kirjavainen. Costumes: Sari Salmela. Lights and projections: Juhani Leppänen and Patrik Åhlgren. Sound design: Antero Mansikka. Premiere on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre on 28.1.2010.

The ancient tale of the sculptor Pygmalion, who fell in love with his own sculpture, is the basis for Georg Bernard Shaw’s play. The text has been seen in many versions, both on stage and in film.
The 60’s version was My Fair Lady and in the 90’s it was called Pretty Woman.
Kari Heiskanen has retranslated the text into Finnish and also given a new name: Kukkaistyttö.
Heiskanen has directed the performance and will also play the role of Dr. Higgins in the Helsinki City Theatre’s version.
The emphasis of the play, in which the man shapes the woman through his own teachings, is complemented by other themes. Through the strong Eliza (Anna-Maija Tuokko), the problem of happiness is also unravelled.
In the story, Dr. Higgins picks up a girl from the gutters and promises to make her salon-worthy in six months.
Eliza’s training begins with a complete cleansing. A young woman is literally washed on stage of everything old, but on a symbolic level, that washing is also rubbing away her identity.
Tuokko does the role handsomely: the raunchy mouth in a newspaper skirt develops into a stinging wordsmith through pain.
Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talk has been chosen as a recurring musical theme, and it is about talking on many levels. Nilsson’s song also refers to the movie Midnigth Cowboy , whose theme song it is, and in which the oat hat sets out to conquer the big city by changing its appearance.

Looks lightweight but offers depth

Heiskanen’s handprint looks light, the verbiage is often bubbly fast-paced, and the characters are drawn with a comic pen.
However, there is another layer moving under the surface, which in some places cuts a thin coating, and when listened to with a careful ear, it is present all the time.
The time of the play is the beginning of the 20th century, but the differences between social classes and their appreciations have in some places been postponed to the present day.
The linguistic approach of the sworn bachelor Higgins is a prime example of one-liner thinking. The man compartmentalizes people only according to the way he speaks.
Eliza’s rough street language is initially brought into the right upper-class intonation, which makes the porcelain cups tremble. Later, the vocabulary is also refined, so that the doors to the world of crystal chandeliers are open.
With her own language comes freedom, but Eliza doesn’t grab the easy solutions offered.
The relationship between Heiskanen’s and Tuokko’s roles is like a rubber band that pops further and further after each rapprochement.
Pertti Koivula’s portrayal of Eliza’s father with fur hat humour removes the equation between money and happiness more clearly than his daughter, but also tells us that money changes people.
Katariina Kirjavainen’s sparse and insightful set design offers space for many milieus. Videographies enable the examination of several perspectives and multiply small groups into communities.
Ritva Valkama plays a juicy sarcastic role as Higgins’ sharp-witted mother.
Aino Seppo and Helena Vierikko take on the roles of nosy socialites.
The title of the play is not very attractive. As a performance, it is cascadingly capricious and therefore interesting.