Review: Next to Normal

When an angel becomes a demon

Are musicals always fairytale-like sparkle as a counterbalance to speech theatre that loves naturalistic everyday life?

There are also serious themes in them: West Side Story, already a classic, made history because it musicalized racial conflict.

New York has been captivated by an intimate work that focuses on madness, and it is not a romantic fairy tale horror, but an illness that used to be called manic-depressive.

Bipolar syndrome plunges the sufferer into unexplained anxiety from time to time, which may lead to suicide.

While the mother (Jonna Järnefelt) is making a hundred sandwiches in her manic phase, her husband (Juha Junttu) and teenage daughter (Vuokko Hovatta) know what’s coming again.

The psychiatric doctor (Antti Timonen) pushes Diana pill cocktails that would stun even the horse, but the illness continues.

The talented Natalie suffers from motherlessness, but she is found and rescued by Henry (Petrus Kähkönen), so at least the young love is budding, perhaps.

Markus Tsokkinen’s four-tiered set design is utilised with brisk movement to interlace the scenes.

Honesty inherits the earth

Next to Normal , composed through almost 40 songs, is a rock opera with a six-piece orchestra consisting of keyboards, percussion, cello, guitar, bass and violin.

The varied and dramatic music offers the actors even demanding solos, duets and polyphonic numbers. Well-rehearsed solos and harmonies sound energetic and clean. Of course, the actors who sing in musicals mean more than the singers who act. This is where the ensemble works.

Reality and the imaginary are mixed. Diana is tormented by the potential responsibility for the baby’s death. Gabe (Tuukka Leppänen) won’t leave his mother alone.

Leppänen’s intense interpretation loads drama into the picture. Everyone has their demons with whom the battle can be fatal.

The text does not simplify or underline much, and the ending avoids both syrup and gloom.

Juha Junttu’s confused, loving Dan and Jonna Järnefelt’s fragile and brave Diana fight honestly and seriously. Eyes moisten in the audience when something truthful is reached.

You can’t live without it in everyday life.