Review: Munaako herra ministeri

Neil Hardwick’s tear-jerkingly high-flying direction

THE MINISTER’S BLUNDER IS A HILARIOUS HIT

Rarely has there been such a successful farce as the Helsinki City Theatre’s novelty Munaako herra minister. The play is a play for the so-called general public. Hilarous, harmless and funny, and the applause doesn’t seem to stop.

Neil Hardwick’s tearing, high-flying steering doesn’t stop for a second. Flying like water, once it has started, it murmurs forward, sometimes cascading in the rapids, but never stopping in the backwater. The main pair, Esko Roine as Minister Viljakainen and Asko Sarkola as his political secretary Petäjä, is an unprickly combination of flavours.

Roine is the epitome of a politician. The everyday, clever secretive. Just seeing Sarkola’s face makes you giggle. And the giggling will not stop once it starts. Hardwick picks up the tempo towards the end. But there will be no excess.

Pentti Järvinen has translated the script by the English Ray Cooney into Finnish to take place in the Vaakuna Hotel. The venues and the Lipponens and their partners are familiar material to everyone.

Mari Vainio as the secretary of the parliamentary group, Antti Litja as a waitress and Seppo Maijala as the director of Vaakuna have a successfully annoying edge. Miitta Sorvali is the temperamental Mrs. Viljanen. Eppu Salminen lets loose at a brisk pace and in a lively modern language.