Review: Kolme iloista rosvoa
The Helsinki City Theatre has once again invested in family theatre in an absolutely wonderful way when it brings the play THREE MERRY ROBBERS to its big stage.
Despite the fact that the City Theatre never goes where the fence is lowest in any of its productions, for some reason I always admire the fact that works aimed at children are executed with exactly the same intensity as plays aimed at adults.
The endearingly educational story THREE MERRY ROBBERS, written in the 1950s by Thorbjörn Egner (translated by Aila Meriluoto), which premiered on the second day of February 2011, is like candy.
It guides you to the traditional good values that are already being badly forgotten by reminding you that you have to be nice and not bully, but otherwise you can do whatever you want.
The city of Cardamom is an ideal environment where everyone feels good, everyone’s creativity can flourish and all people are important, unique and lovable.
In other words, a real fairytale city!
Even the destructively messy and antisocial robber-rascals are such slobs just because they have nothing more important to do than robbery and teasing.
When the community takes them in, gives them important tasks to take care of, even falls in love with them and appreciates them, the robbery stops and all three happy robbers (plus the lion) become exemplary, happy and kind citizens of cardamom.
The reactions of the child audience during the screening were again telling. Of course, the familiar “Now quietly, quietly, let’s sneak in the night of Cardamom…” The song created an amazing reaction and there were plenty of co-singers and rhythm clappers.
The children shouted “long live” and participated joyfully in the play, which was the length of a full-fledged act, so you would have thought it would be boring for the little spectators!
2 hours and 20 minutes didn’t seem like too much time even for the youngest viewers.
The show is best suited for a very young audience and is a great and certainly memorable experience for the very first theatre performance for a child.
Milko Lehto’s direction offers funny jokes for a more adult audience as well, and the brilliant set-up mentioned at the beginning is manna for the eyes of adults as well.
Especially the execution of the animal characters is delicious and imaginative, and special mention is made for that.
Police Chief Paavali PERTTI KOIVULA is the sweetest person in the play and simply funny. Although the central characters are, of course, Kasper RAUNO AHONEN, Jesper PAAVO KEROSUO and Joonatan EPPU SALMINEN. And the playfully fierce lion SAMI UOTILA should not be underestimated in her taciturn, but very physically apt role.
Other happy residents of the happy city of Cardamom are presented by: MARJUT TOIVANEN, EERO SAARINEN, URSULA SALO/ LEENAMARI UNHO, SOFIA HILLI, ANTTI LANG, UNTO NUORA, RISTO KASKILAHTI, TIINA PELTONEN, SANNA SAARIJÄRVI, MATTI OLAVI RANIN etc.
Faithfully, Milko Lehto’s direction adapts the original work to a sweetly instructive and norstalgically old-fashioned story. The performance is coloured by dance and song numbers, which ensure that the viewer is not easily distracted by what is happening on stage.