Review: Katto-Kassinen

WONDERFULLY ANNOYING PROPELLER MAN

Katto-Kassinen flies over the rooftops of Helsinki and into the hearts of the audience
anarchist adventure musical.

Katto-Kassinen is a charming children’s play. Helsinki City Theatre’s interpretation has all the ingredients of a real adventure play and feeds emotions from all sides. In the final reports, you don’t know whether to cry or laugh, probably both alternately and at the same time.

The jumble of emotions and the turmoil that does good arises when the viewer is drawn into the fast-paced play of Katto-Kassinen (Sami Hokkanen), on the one hand.
pranks, but at the same time also empathizing with the lonely life of the Little Brother (Antti Lang), where pain is caused by the longing for a playmate:
If only I had my own little puppy.

So, a warning to those families where puppy discussions are at their hottest: Watching Katto-Kassinen is not at least not for reluctant parents.
positions. So only mother Sepponen (Aino Seppo) came in second, even though the counter-arguments were solid: you can’t keep a dog in the city, especially not on the fourth floor of a building without an elevator. Except that you can.

Limitless confidence
The story of the friendship between Katto-Kassinen, who flies over the rooftops with his propellers, and the soon-to-be-8-year-old lonely boy, Little Brother, is very familiar to many children. As a character, Katto-Kassinen is very similar in spirit to her “sister” Pippi Longstocking, both Astrid
Lindgren’s beloved fairy tale characters.

The main common feature of Pippi and Katto-Kassinen is, of course, anarchism, a lifestyle that slightly disregards the rules of parents and society. Both also have their own supernatural abilities, which makes them superior. Pippi has enormous powers, while Katto-Kassinen, on the other hand, is not only able to fly, but also “a beautiful and thoroughly wise man and just the right amount of fat man in his prime”. In short, the best in the world in everything, in his own opinion.

So Katto-Kassinen is perfect and his ego is so big that others want to be left behind. Katto-Kassinen’s selfishness and boundless self-confidence are annoying, but in such a way that I’m sure many children will recognize the type.

Katto-Kassinen is so wonderful that of course no one believes in his existence except Little Brother, who thinks it’s quite natural that someone can fly in and out of the window once or twice. Central to the play are the Little Brother’s attempts to convince the rest of the family of Katto-Kassinen’s existence. But of course, every time Little Brother manages to drag the rest of the group to watch, Katto-Kassinen has already run away.

Kaskilahti’s hilarious show
In the adventure musical, the relationships are on point: there is just the right amount of suspense with ghosts and bandits, there is a flight of imagination and a little bit more, a play on words, a good rhythm, and after Miss Pässi (Risto Kaskilahti) arrives to take care of the Little Brother who has been left alone at home, the atmosphere is more or less carnivalesque.


Risto Kaskilahti as Miss Pässi plays a funny and multifaceted role that pinches stomach nerves. In Katto-Kassinen’s pranks, Miss Pässi has her head spinning in no time, but she is not some edgy sloppy old aunt, but gives Kassinen a proper resistance sometimes in a tennis match with frying pans and meatballs, sometimes in shadow boxing.


Kaskilahti throws herself into her role with great devotion. In addition to acting talents, it requires good physical condition and body control to complete it. Kaskilahti’s hilarious half-hour.


Theatre for the whole family
When you have a good setting (money), a good script and music, and skilled artists to interpret, you can create just as good and enjoyable (children’s) theatre as Katto-Kassinen. Theatre for the whole family at its best.

Of the fairy tale characters, Peter Panin and Katto-Kassinen are the ones who, due to their phenomenal ability, put theatre’s technology to the test. At the Helsinki City Theatre, Kassinen really flies, as do Little Brother and
Eventually, a puppy too, a real one.

In addition to the technique, the set design also plays a significant role, which is also skilfully done. Simultaneously present on stage is the Sepponen family’s home with its Little Brother’s room and the Katto-Kassinen milieu with its rooftop views, which is full of landmarks familiar at least to the people of Helsinki and especially to those living in Kallio.

The play is partly double-cast. Eppu Salminen will also be seen as Katto-Kassinen and Antti Timonen as Little Brother.