Review: Yökyöpelit

Helsinki City Theatre’s children’s play Night Owls is a celebration of linguistic rejoicing, the execution of which is stunning with its magnificence.

The grandmother orders:
“No one is allowed to do wrong,
no slander, no war,
not to take too much seriously.”

You have to stay up all night
and to worship grandmothers!”

It is no surprise that the musical play, based on Laura Ruohonen’s beloved children’s poetry books Night Owls and Allakka pulllakka , is linguistically delicious like a fresh wild strawberry. But in addition, it is a visually fine theatre experience with a fantastic soundscape, the execution of which has not been skimped. The songs have been composed by Anna-Mari Kähärä, the cast includes long-standing favourites of Finns, and the play’s narrative even includes acrobatics as an organic part. In this performance, the fall in state subsidies for theatres or other boring facts of the real world do not limit the action!

The story begins when Agent Genius Naru (Martti Suosalo) notices that his car has disappeared in front of the House of the Night Owls. The night owls are literally a shady bunch, because they don’t sleep at night, and the agent immediately starts to suspect a crime. Soon, Mahtimummeli Päätai Väätäinen (Seela Sella) also realizes that he can’t find his home base anywhere. Has some miserable mischief eaten the car and the home base? Gradually, the situation becomes more serious: pieces of the night owls’ house disappear and the entire stage goes dark because someone has gnawed at the electrical wires.

The Night Owls are recommended for children over the age of 5, and even though Ruohonen’s poems with their linguistic games are not exactly easy, children should be able to dive into the world of the play easier, at least at first, than adults. At least the undersigned adult was initially looking for the pointing characteristic of children’s plays and a clear line between fantasy and realism in the performance. However, it quickly became clear that in the traditional sense, it is completely useless to dream of an educational approach and an educational message.

The characters and events are open-mindedly based on the linguistic experimentation and absurd humour of Ruohonen’s poems, and they are carved into an exhilarating freak gallery on stage with strong acting.

These characters also stem directly from the children’s own fantasies. What would it be like to live, even just for one day, like the Baby Khanty (Vuokko Hovatta), who literally whips his parents, commanding all the adults with witty phrases and eating as much candy as his belly button pulls? Or what if your own grandma suddenly turned into a four-armed Head Lice, who is more cunning and abrupt than anyone else? Or what if, suddenly, a Nibbler from primordial space with miraculous abilities, played by acrobat Katja Kortström , was suddenly swinging in the telephone wires?

At the same time, however, the fairy tale characters on stage also deal with why the impossible cannot become possible. For example, the questions of why desires should be controlled, why differences should be tolerated, and why a child is a child and an adult is an adult, have pretty good answers in this play, which the child will probably understand intuitively.

In the auditorium, there are many children aged 5–10, and throughout the performance, there is enthusiastic whispering and chatter in the dim light of the hall. Screams of terror and joy echo into the air from time to time, and during the intermission, a group of girls recites Ruohonen’s poems printed for the programme with great difficulty.

The orchestra is visible on the edge of the stage, and the actors often participate in the sing-along parts even when they are not on stage. Correspondingly, the members of the orchestra sometimes take the stage – for example, in the role of the uncontrollably funny, polyphonic singing Student Union Bird Choir.

The play’s full experience package also includes fresh and insightful movement choreographies related to the songs. In addition, the actors and the performance itself sometimes spread out briskly to the side of the audience, and Kortström, who is squealing in the air, swings a couple of times so close to the heads of the audience sitting in the front row that it is terrifying.

If you wish, you can read Ruohonen’s poems and plays in protest against children’s plays and literature that are instructive and protect children from adult cynicism and the absurdity of the world – without in any way underestimating well-made children’s plays that take an educational stand.

Born stupid
Died stupid
In between, he licked his fingers.

Perhaps this piece of poetry should not be read to a child being put to bed as a bedtime poem, as Mahtimummeli Päätai Väätäinen tries to do, but it sums up human life quite aptly.