Review: Katto-Kassinen
Karlsson flies over the roof of Helsinki
Astrid Lindgren’s Katto-Kassinen (Karlsson on the Roof) dramatised by Staffan Götestam. In Finnish: Eppu and Kurt Nuotio. Translation of the lyrics : Ilpo Tiihonen. Music: Georg Riedel, Staffan Götestam, Anders Berglund. Director: Kurt Nuotio. On stage: Sami Hokkanen, Antti Lang, Aino Seppo, Matti Rasila, Antti Timonen, Tiina Peltonen, Matti Laine, Risto Kaskilahti, Juha Jokela, Sanna Saarijärvi and the dogs Milli, Panda and Salli. Helsinki City Theatre’s Main Stage, premiere 21.4.2005.
This spring, the City Theatre’s major investment for children is Astrid Lindgren’s Katto-Kassinen (Karlsson on the Roof) as a dramatisation with musical elements. However, it is not a question of a musical or musical theatre. The lyrics dominate in a finely flowing translation by Eppu and Kurt Nuotio and with excellent lyric adaptations by word acrobat Ilpo Tiihonen. The pleasant music is performed by a live ensemble.
The entire performance is characterized by empathy, solid practice and the joy of playing. The fact that the audience reacts so wholeheartedly must be a source of inspiration for the participants. It is carefully thought out and performed theatre to the delight of children.
All the cast members did a great job. The premiere crew’s Katto-Kassinen was played by Sami Hokkanen, who devoted himself to his korgies with life and desire. He hovered over the rooftops of houses, which were unmistakably reminiscent of the Cathedral and Helsinki’s Art Nouveau profile. It was an urban Kassinen-Karlsson adapted to the environment of the children of the capital, a correct and realistic interpretation.
Pikkuveli (Little Brother) was played in this crew by Antti Lang , who made a touching and believable lonely little boy with dreams of a puppy and whose life is suddenly filled with Kassinen’s inventions. Father (Matti Rasila) and mother (Aino Seppo), siblings (Antti Timonen and Tiina Peltonen), friends and thieves are inexorably allowed to fall back to the main actors’ rampage. Towards the end of the play, the person who steals the show is Neiti Pässi, a drag character, played by Risto Kaskilaht. It was mostly classic slapstick and undeniably pulled up the mood.
The stage version emphasized the comedy elements. It acknowledged perhaps the most important thing about Astrid Lindgren, the seriousness seen from the child’s perspective, with rather superficial hints of Little Brother’s loneliness in a family where everyone is in a terrible hurry. Out of fear that the children would be bored or experience something other than just slapstick joy, adult theatre makers often cheat away the opportunity for children to experience the entire palette of emotions on stage. The children’s minds are undervalued.
On the other hand, Astrid Lindgren’s other main strand, the anarchist anti-establishment, came to the fore. Kassinen did all the things that children are told not to do. He ate sweets and cakes, ate other people’s portions, ignored admonitions and led an independent life on his own terms, high above the ceiling of others. What bothered me, and is a generational issue, was that they played so much with food, ping-pong with meatballs and slurped with porridge plates.
Little brother gets his puppy for his birthday, Kassinen becomes visible to everyone who wants to see him and everything ends in general jubilation.
Katto-Kassinen is a delight for both the children and their adult relatives and friends. Even for sour critics.