Review: Prinsessa Ruusunen
LOTS OF NEW, SOMETHING OLD
SOMETHING BORROWED AND SOMETHING BLUE
How can a centuries-old folk tale be any different today than it was yesterday? Say it.
At least this latest version of Sleeping Beauty at the Helsinki City Theatre differs slightly from the previous ones. A really big nugget. So all of us have a good reason to check it out, those of us who are now or have once been the smallest in the family.
In Anneli Mäkelä’s “workshop”, Sleeping Beauty has become more explanatory, participatory and mobile. It is stuffed with plot filler and mythology, both international and national. As a result, the fairy tale gets richer in part, but also gets poorer on the other hand.
The aim has been to give the little viewers as hefty a package as possible. By building the play on a narrator, the prince is made to make time jumps into the past hidden by rose vines and realize his own future role as a hero chosen by fate.
The princess has been brought closer to our own time as a rebellious adolescent who gives a damn about the spindle nonsense, is stubborn, adventurous but also genuinely fair. He goes to the field, so to speak, and finds out if everything is fine on the ground or not. A girl who grew up in a barrel grows up to be a “conscious youth” who defies her father’s will.
A few clues have also been drawn about the royal couple’s mutual relations and court chatter in a modern-day way.
The fairy tale gets sprawls from animal figures, market buzz, circus people. It borrows from the global treasure trove of the performing arts and also dives into ballet.
And surprisingly, the choreography seems to be the best part of this production. It is at its most magnificent in Kirsi Karlenius’ dance as the fairy Dulcinea, in Reetta Honkakoski’s frog and wild goose roles, and in Sakari Männistö’s various roles, not least as the Unicorn. The little acrobats of the Circus School Bravuuri are as endearing as they are skilled, and the stage movement is successful throughout. Both set design and costumes are a feast for the eyes.
As the title character, Sanna Majuri makes the character that comes naturally to this realization with a brisk manner, Reidar Palmgren is a prince-looking prince, and of course, the whole team has its own glow.
It is also healthy to see what can happen to the painting when it is improved. Perhaps the basic drama becomes thinner and the chef disappears. Remember the chubby guy who – a long, long time ago, when today’s girly grandmothers were really girly – gave a hilarious ride to a chef boy. Now that guy wasn’t part of the kitchen staff.