Review: Viivi ja Wagner

A LOT OF NOISE ABOUT THE PIG RELATIONSHIP


Not exactly silly, but laughable enough.

That’s the most important takeaway of the popular comic strip Viivi and Wagner’s transfer to the stage from Studio Pasila. There is no need to look for anything, that is, at all, deeper meanings in episodic – or rather strip-like – frolicking. And there was clearly no intention to serve such a thing.

Viivi and Wagner, created by Juba Tuomola , which has become the most popular Finnish newspaper and album comic strip over the past ten years, probably no longer needs a detailed outline due to its basic setting. In other words, there is a well-informed eco-girl Viivi, who lives together with her boyfriend and opposite Wagner, who happens to be a pig. That is, in terms of the definition of the species. Viivi makes the world a better place and pulls veggie hats, Wagner lies on the couch flapping the remote control and sipping beer. Even though they are different couples, these two also love in their own way, which seems strange to the outside world.

Viivi and Wagner first ventured on stage in Turku in the autumn of 2002, and the Helsinki version is mostly based on the same script written by Juba Tuomola herself.

Many types
hells

Juba’s comic strips are mainly based on the dialogue and painful relationship between his two central characters. You can draw time from them for this kind of comedy, but you have also had to scrape additional ingredients for the stage. Thus, in the first act, we even race to the afterlife, when Satan arrives as an uninvited guest in Wagner’s daydream and buys his soul for a pittance. From there, a hellish karaoke show is tuned to the stage, which in all its detachment is one of the highlights of this “play”.

The other half is dominated by the family theme, when Viivi’s parents, Uncle Julli, who is boastful with his money, and his wife, Aunt Fylli, who has been completely ruined by his mammon, arrive to visit, as well as her grandmother. For Wagner, the situation is even scarier at first than the previous nightmare, but when cognac lightens the mood and grandma’s tongue, it’s suddenly quite nice. Also in the stands, because especially the rascally grandma (the excellent Pia Runnakko!) offers a hint of surprise to the rather expected course of events in the second half.

The final spurt also brings its own radiant climax to the final spurt, which Wagner has agreed to take to the balcony of Viivi’s cabin for final disposal.

Give
go!

Director Tiina Puumalainen has obviously given her entire crew a free hand, which can be seen both in Riitta Anttonen-Palo’s hilarious costumes (but in the case of the main characters, faithful to the original costumes) as well as in the stage design staged by Markus Tsokkinen in an overly pink style. The actors have been able to make characters to their heart’s content and even by applying the means of slapstick. The director himself has not unnecessarily started to think about the interactivity of the backwaters and roars on stage, but now we go on the terms of comic book unreality, i.e. quite uninhibitedly. And if the text has once been written with petty rants, farting and slurping, then why press the brakes.

For the role of Wagner, Risto Kaskilahti has certainly been quite self-evident. With his physique and mimicry, the pig role is handled elastically, reinforced with a loose trunk and tail, as well as proper lower belly padding. However, the frenzied Viivi, played by Sari Siikander , rises to become the undisputed queen of the stage, she has such passion and many ways that the character grows bigger than the comic.

The rhythm group also does solid work, in addition to the already mentioned Pia Runnako, Heidi Herala is in her element as Viivi’s mother who strives for order but loses control. Eppu Salminen He’s really cool in his Satan costume, as Uncle Julli his Peternygård-esque gestures go a bit over the top, if that’s at all possible in this genre. In that tearing, even Sanna Saarijärvi’s Aunt Fylli swings on the suitable-a little-too much scale here and there. Matti Rasila Viivi’s father is the only character in the performance who strives for calm, and therefore, in the midst of all the fuss, he is also pleasing to the audience.

So there is enough for two hours and the speech is so direct that I don’t dare to recommend this as a play for the whole family, even though Viivi and Wagner certainly have a lot of school-age readers as well. In other words, one type of adult entertainment, albeit of course purged of pornography.