Review: Lastenkutsut

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Evening milking in Tamminiemi

Paavo Haavikko’s Children’s Party is a joke that also has content

Paavo Haavikko: Children’s Parties. Helsinki City Theatre, UKK Museum. Directed by Leena Uotila, costumes by Maija Pekkanen. Cast: Heikki Nousiainen, Antti Litja, Mikko Kivinen, Leena Uotila, Miitta Sorvali, Mika Nuojua, Asko Sarkola.

At the UKK Museum, in the Tamminiemi salon, the old phone rings. The door opens. It takes a peek – Help! – Urho Kekkonen.

However, and luckily, an actor who looks like Urho Kekkonen, Heikki Nousiainen, enters. The play begins.

Paavo Haavikko’s play Children’s Party, or a long sketch, has a misleading name. It is not at all a question of the children’s parties that President Kekkonen is said to have charmed a young left-wing intellectual to his side.

In an authentic environment, in the President’s home in Tamminiemi, an imaginary 100th anniversary celebration will be celebrated, and even that will last only 40 minutes. The number of people present is representative.

In addition to Kekkonen, two other presidents, Mauno Koivisto and Tarja Halonen, will also be seen. Paavo Lipponen is also present. The house and Kekkonen’s dust is dusted by Anita Hallama, the devastatingly handsome Miitta Sorvali.

Very seriously

Haavikko’s text should not be taken and nothing more profound should be expected from it. In that sense, the Children’s Party is a disappointment for some, perhaps even a relief for some.

However, Children’s Party is mainly a satirical joke with content. Kekkonen and Koivisto clash over the Constitution and the power of the President. Lipponen and Halonen argue about everything possible, i.e. who has the last word.

At times, Haavikko rejoiced surprisingly lightly, even to the point of his meanness. But there is also non-theatrical ranting on offer.

The performance, directed by Leena Uotila, features funny caricatures and small situations. Paavo Lipponen changes his outfit and shows up at the party in Tyrolean-style leather trousers. And so on. At the premiere, the whole seemed unfinished and therefore uncertain, including replication.

However, Heikki Nousiainen looks and feels unbelievably and convincingly like Kekkonen, Antti Litja as Koivisto, eyebrows raised, a familiar rootstock, Mikko Kivinen and Leena Uotila as Lipponen and Halonen are a funny pair of arguments, and Asko Sarkola as an advisor is quite a charming know-it-all.

One could imagine

that in honor of the anniversary, Paavo Haavikko would have offered something sturdier and more polished than he had seen. Now the Children’s Party is some kind of Evening Milking in Tamminiemi and live. I’m allowed to laugh.

Maybe someone should return to the topic sometime, for example, by means of a play, i.e. to those real children’s parties.