Arvio - Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri

Laila Kanon: Stadin friidu, the love story of the Continuation War. Helsinki City Theatre, Elsa Stage. Dramatization and direction
Tuija Töyräs, set design and lighting and projection design Tina Jokitalo, costumes Maija Pekkanen, sound Jokke Heikkilä, choreography
Ari Numminen. Cast: Ursula Salo, Oskari Katajisto and Pekka Huotari.

Laila Kanon’s autobiographical epistolary novel Stadin friidu ja metsien mies (The Lady of the Stadi and the Man of the Forests) is one of the memoirs she has read and loved.

Man seeks his fortune in the grip of war. It doesn’t turn out the way it should. The many phases of the Continuation War took a toll on those who rushed to the front
The bright-eyed and male-liked Stadin Friidu has the intentions of both a husband and a friend.

The story recalled by Laila Kanoni lifts with its hopefulness and moves with its tragedy.

The theatrical version of the Helsinki City Theatre’s Elsa stage is not entirely free from letter and diary dramatizations
characterized by the undramatic dragging of self-narrative, i.e. one truth. When the evening feels a bit long after more than a couple of hours,
over, however, the viewer’s mind is high.

After all, we were able to grasp the bright and vital human alternatives, the same ones that also impressed Laila Kanon’s reader.
Not forgetting the ultimate pacifism of the subject.

Tuija Töyräs

has dramatised and directed the early stages of Stadin friidu into a thrilling theatre. A two-man
and a one-woman triangle drama with a woman’s enchantment and men’s elixir courtship is a smile, but the most stable
Enchanting sights made with the intention of doing so.

There are a lot of nuances, but nothing is too much. The young director’s creation is teeming with life, love, eroticism, but also
the companionship of death and the presence of fear in a mature and believable way.

A lot depends on the actors, even the staging itself, with its war and ruin projections and hefty sound effects
And the three-part set wall with its options is responsible for a lot. Also Maija Pekkanen’s costumes, mainly for the narrator self
wartime women’s outfits, are calm and beautiful.

And the actors,

pure gold.

At the centre, as the charming soldiers’ home sister and Pörri beloved by two men, Ursula Salo strips both the men and the men of the play
even the viewers completely disarmed. You can’t resist buzzers like him, not the beauty of the character, not even the controlled sonority of the voice,
No wit, no fluency of thought. Ursula Salo knows how to turn an everyday person into a heroine. An innocent and bright-eyed girl
to grow into a human being.

As his heroes, Oskari Katajisto and Pekka Huotari, with their joys, fears and mutual gentlemanly struggles, are impossible
funny and they are definitely human too. The competitive dance designed by Ari Numminen is one of the delicacies of the performance for them as well.

In the middle stages, however, Pekka Huotari was eager to improve the fading tone of the drama with quite familiar comedy excesses. Fortunately, they
go on their way.

In the middle of the

The performance of Stadin friidu is indeed dragging on and fading. It’s part of theatre when two people are on stage for tens of minutes
With common goals, almost agree on everything, opposing forces fall and tensions loosen. For a while, Stadin friidu
review the wartime facts without the sparkle of the beginning.

The charm of the characters remains, but the theatrical event is more of a reminiscence than a drama.

In the final thanks of the premiere, Ursula Salo was joined by the storyteller, the real Pörri, Laila Kanon. They were like two
berries. The atmosphere was the most heartfelt in the world. They both had something to give. And that’s what they did in their joint Stadin friidu.

Review: Stadin friidu

The war turns the city girl into an adult