Review: Tenorit liemessä

Tenors in the broth make you laugh with tears in your eyes

Helsinki City Theatre’s farce Tenors in the Broth is a hilarious boost that is more effective than the sunshine of February.

Tenors in the Broth is theatre at its best. There are four men and three women on stage, as well as breathtaking plot twists.  The text by the American playwright Ken Ludwig is insightful and funny, but under the direction of Jaakko Saariluoma and the top performance of each actor, the text takes off and tests the audience’s stomach and cheek muscles.  I don’t remember laughing so much in the theatre almost never before.

Part of the glamour lies in the wonderfully imaginative but believable plot development. The setting is a room in a 1936 Parisian hotel, where larger-than-life emotions are discussed by Italian, Russian-American forces.

The Italian characters in the farce are blatant exaggerations of stereotypes, but at the same time so genuine that they immediately capture the viewer’s heart.

Eero Saarinen, in particular, in his double role as a renowned Italian tenor and a Venetian piccolo, is on a level that is seen too rarely. Jonna Järnefelt’s Russian opera singer Tatjana Racón, who returns to her old lover, is a sparkling diva and a blood-curdling venus who one would have liked to have had a bigger role.

Piccolo Bebbo, who jumps into the role of a famous opera singer for a moment through many twists and turns out to be a true everyday philosopher, whose dialogue with the tongue of a beef lying on a tray is one of the most delicious parts of the performance.

Ebbbo’s lines “A mistress in one bedroom and a wife in the other – well, someone else’s wife – but an Italian man can be a little flexible” will make you laugh long after the premiere.

The premiere of Tenors in the Broth on 8 February was the Nordic premiere on the Areena stage.