Review: Katto-Kassinen

In the lively company of Katto-Kassinen, anything is possible

Helsinki City Theatre’s Katto-Kassinen brings a magnificent spectacle to the stage.
Katto-Kassinen puts Miss Pässi’s nerves to the test.
Directed by Kurt Nuotio , Astrid Lindgren’s classic is admirably youthful on the big stage, and especially the teenagers in the family are genuinely angsty. On stage, we will see more and more amazing effects than each other, starting with the flying Kassinen, of course.

Katto-Kassinen, played by Sami Hokkanen at the premiere (the other link in the double crew is Eppu Salminen), is the son of the family’s youngest child, Little Brother, who flies onto the windowsill and knows the noble art of self-bragging, messing up the children’s room and pranks. Antti Lang , who plays the little brother, is so sympathetic that the playfully self-loving Kassinen feels like a narcissistic monster next to him. Risto Kaskilahti exhilaratingly plays the babysitter, old Miss Pässi, and brightens up the second half, making the audience resound with the laughter of the adults as well.

The live band works brilliantly and the music is everything from a rap solo to an Ave Maria aria and traditional sing-alongs. Somewhere between a giant snake and a kung fu fight, I am overwhelmed by the feeling that anything is possible in this show.

People of all ages seem to enjoy themselves, and there are also hooks aimed at adults in the dialogue. My companion Oskari , who is below the recommended age of five years, laughs at the top of his lungs and enjoys the flying pace, although the two-hour duration starts to get numb towards the end. In his opinion, the biggest shortcoming is that he didn’t get to try flying on stage himself. My biggest fear, on the other hand, is that Little Oskari will grow up to be a self-righteous escapor of responsibility, a modern-day Katto-Kassinen familiar from TV and, unfortunately, also from everyday life.

The writer is a second-year student at Kallio Upper Secondary School of Expression