Review: Katto-Kassinen

KATTO-KASSI IS THE BEST THING TO LOOK AT AS A CHILD

When Katto-Kassinen played tricks on her older sister and nanny, I felt a few decades too old. There seemed to be too much chasing, stalking and sitting on a fart bag.

But when the hall full of children around me rejoiced, I had to believe that it was my fault. The only thing that helped was to become a child again, which, according to the testimony of the immediate environment, has never caused me any difficulties. It worked out well this time as well: when the parents still didn’t believe in Katto-Kassinen’s existence and thought he wasn’t in the room, I almost shouted along with the other children: “IT’S BEHIND THE DOOR”. Fortunately, Kassinen came out in time and I didn’t have time to join in the shouting. I would never have dared to go to the theatre again. Except for children’s plays.

After finding the so-called inner child, I enjoyed Katto-Kassinen’s flying over the rooftops, his unrestrainedness and strange things, the mischief of unskilled robbers on the roof, the silly nanny and, above all, the cute real dog.

In short, the play goes like this: the boy hopes for a dog in vain, he is replaced by a flying Katto-Kassinen, who does all the things he shouldn’t do, the nanny representing a stupid adult gets fed up with Kassinen’s tricks, as do burglars, and finally a real dog comes as a birthday present.

Of course, it is nice for an adult to identify with this kind of Katto-Kassinen , which breaks all norms, but quite clearly this version of the play is aimed specifically at children. Acting can sometimes be cartoonish to an adult, but it seemed to correspond to the taste of the children’s audience perfectly. There was no end to the applause.

And of course, Sami Hokkanen was a suitably boisterous Katto-Kassinen and Antti Lang was an excellently sensitive seven-year-old. The most insane was Risto Kaskilahti as the nanny Pässi. You couldn’t help but laugh at it.
Making for children has not meant compromising on spectacle, as Katariina Kirjavainen had designed a really handsome view from the rooftops of Helsinki at night.