Review: Ihmisen osa

Guaranteed Hotakainen

In the background is Kari Hotakainen’s best book The Human Part, in the lead role, Salmi by Ritva Valkama and close troops e.g. Sanna-Kaisa Palo, Jaakko Saariluoma, Leena Uotila and Kari-Pekka Toivonen – so expectations are high.

Fortunately, the play is quite faithful to the book, in which Salme spouts life wisdom with the uninhibited nature of an old person. Money plays a big part in this story – as in life – to hide it. We talk about horrible things, but there is always warmth and caring in the middle of it all. Words are played with in a multi-layered and fun way; We talk about familiar phenomena beside the point and sometimes straight ahead. You can fall from a high or a low place, and everything that doesn’t kill you hurts really hard – and sometimes it makes you laugh.

The performance largely relies on the wise Salmi, the rest of the crowd is scattered on the stage to illustrate the story. At times it crackles and blazes, sometimes the rhythm is (almost) slow, giving room to Salmi’s wisdom.
Warm, good news, lifelike to listen to, colourful and entertaining, understanding life and the human part.