Review: Kun siilit rakastaa
AN ENJOYABLE PLAY FROM AHLFORS
When hedgehogs love is a warm-hearted and small is beautiful ideology is today’s educational morality.
Asko Sarkola’s transfer to the position of director of the Helsinki City Theatre from Lilla Teatern was also a stroke of luck for other artists influential in the Finnish-Swedish cultural circle. For example. The plays of the prolific Bengt Ahlfors, the dramatist who wrote almost all of his production for Lillan (a few premieres at the Swedish Theatre and three in Finnish-language theatres), have been performed little in Finnish-language theatres and more abroad.
Of course, some of his 26 plays have been written together with Frej Lindqvist (3), Lars Hulden (1), Anna Bondestam (1), Johan Bargum (2) or the duo Claes Andersson and Johan Bargum (49), but many were not even translated into Finnish, even though translations, especially of the playwright’s newer texts, have been made even in numerous foreign languages.
Ahlfors’ latest drama När igelkottar älskar (When the hedgehog loves) is Ahlfors’ first play to have its premiere at the Helsinki City Theatre. Only two of the previous 25 plays have been performed at the Helsinki City Theatre before this (Lindqvist’s debut play Oli kevät (There Was Spring) and Is there a Tiger in the Congo, co-written with Bargum). Doesn’t give a very good picture of the interaction between our Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking cultural circles!
Well, it’s good that it’s starting to happen. Ahlfors is a very competent writer who has mastered the development of a smooth and clever comedy, in particular.
In fact, he could even be considered one of the best contemporary representatives of classic well-made comedy, whose works are related to many sympathetic British comedies, among others. Ahlfors’ skills are evidenced by both the enjoyable new play Kun siilit rakastaa and the solid popularity of his many previous works abroad.
Kun siilit rakastaa tells the story of the life of Onni Karlsson, the owner of a small car repair shop, and his close circle. His loved ones include his wife Maija, son Matias, daughter Annikki and childhood friend and neighbour Toivonen, although of course Annikki’s new boyfriend Jorma, whom Annikki brings to her family for the first time in the play, is also pushed into it.
Annikki’s fears of a clash between her father and Jorma are justified. Dad is a strong supporter of the grey sector, who only reports about 15 per cent of his income to the tax authorities and does the rest in the dark. Jorma, on the other hand, is a priest who opposes all kinds of lying, trickery and crime and gives lectures on ethics in various companies, for example.
The performance, directed by Ahlfors himself, based on his own three-act summer comedy, is quite entertaining and exactly what the general public certainly expects from his theatre, but may not appeal to everyone who demands a big big bang or great social participation in their art, for example. When hedgehogs love is a warm-hearted and small-is-beautiful ideology that acknowledges today’s educational morality, where evil may not get its reward in all respects, but quite a slap in the face nonetheless.
Seppo Maijala is the mellow and rich-hating Onni, Vieno Saaristo is the excellent Maija and Susanna Roine is the feisty Annikki, the family’s first high school graduate and university student. Arttu Kapulainen is a right-aged Matias for his role, who does his part with the certainty of an experienced child and teen actor. Jyrki Kovaleff is suitably lucid in F. Toivonen and Heidi Herala is suitably capable of taking on the role of the solver at the end as Mrs. Lind, who rises from a supporting role.
Pekka Korpiniity’s bright and suitably supportive of the lightness of the text in a like-minded (not to say sunny cardboard) set fits the story like a flower to a buttonhole. And the same summery look is also continued by Maija Pekkanen’s dresses. The music is provided by Johann Logrén and his accordion from the roof of a suburban detached house.
The spring-summer theatre season is a very good place to start on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre. When Hedgehogs Love is a well-made, good-natured and educational comedy. Someone might say silly.