Review: Munaako herra ministeri

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Minister’s blunders are fun for the people

Helsinki City Theatre and Tampere Workers’ Theatre have teamed up their theatre directors and staged a co-production of Ray Cooney’s political joke Munaako herra ministeri or Political Pot, which is the guaranteed name of the British farce, on the main stages of both of them.
   This is not the first time the work has been performed on Finnish stages. It has previously been performed under the names Valheessa vara parem, Hilvaton hotelli and Säpinää seurahuonella. It had its Finnish premiere at the Swedish Theatre under the name Lögner, lik och lust already in 1991.
   However, the play is easily topical and localized eternal stuff. It works like a supplementary assignment for an exercise book: only the names of the political actors in the text and the name of the event hotel are changed to match the city of the performance, and the party affiliations of the characters in the play can also be easily changed. A clever concept. The Minister of the National Coalition Party is messing around at the Helsinki City Theatre.
   However, there is nothing political or especially social in this pot, because politics in the play only represents the frame of reference in which the people are the people’s eyes, so that when they stagger on the edge of a hole they have dug themselves, they can be sincerely gloating in the audience.
   In a basic democratic Finland, where double standards do not have quite as deep and lush roots as in England, a minister-level sex scandal does not have as strong a tickling potential as such. (Perhaps because we have not yet seen such a thing, whether it is the decency of politicians or the slackness of the yellow press.) So, despite the local and current affairs adaptation, the supranational template shines through, and I know I’m laughing at something that is actually funny rather than someone else’s opinion.

Theatre directors
Feasting

   However, Ray Cooney’s farce serves its purpose in the most important thing, i.e. by offering Asko Sarkola and Esko Roine roles in which they can feast on what is probably their own and most enjoyable area – one of the king’s genres of acting technique, i.e. farce acting.
   Esko Roine manages to be a steadily mildly grumpy and completely egotistical self-gainer, who mercilessly exploits the lives of people close to him without drawing a line between work and private life. And all this without a twinkle in conscience. On Roine’s lips, Minister Viljanen lies without a single glimpse of any indication of deliberation on his face. The stories just run out with complete ease and a rhythm that fits the situation.
   Asko Sarkola as the political secretary of the previous one gets and uses all his titillating mannerisms in the role, which you never tire of watching. The stupid swaying, the innocent empty gaze of the fool and the gasping for breath that brings relief to the tight tempo of the speech keep the comedy going more effectively than the text itself. Theatre directors have a knack for making implausible situations believable according to the laws of comedy, and they don’t need unnecessary character analyses to slow down the flow of things.

Too much
Searching for Truth

   A few chips in the machine, which Neil Hardwick steered to be otherwise self-rolling, chafe a little.
   Mari Vainio, who plays the secretary of the Centre Party parliamentary group, is largely focused on the correct alignment of the direction of the front, which is of course an essential factor in the performance. However, striving for consistency in the description of the bimbo character takes too much of the punchiness of the comic rhythm, and Vainio does not get to feast on his own hits to the fullest.
   Eppu Salminen, who plays the jealous open-minded man, on the other hand, lays his work on a strongly emotional foundation, which creates a slip into the genre. It is difficult for an empathetic person like me to surrender to malice when rage and despair are presented in such a realistic way.
   The only annoying thing about Miitta Sorvali’s and Heidi Herala’s performance is that they have been signed in so late. I would like to enjoy the comedy of the ladies for longer. However, while the final acceleration is underway, the activities of the minister’s wife and the old maid have caught on to an unnecessary taste of haste, and a large part of Sorval’s lines are directed parallel to the stage ramp and thus remain completely out of reach of the viewers, at least on the other side.
   What if we could hope: Finnish comedy and farce productions through long-term and dedicated cooperation between theatres and playwrights, so that offering local colour would no longer mean a colouring book and a set of markers in the same package.

OUTI LAHTINEN
   
   
   
Ray Cooney: Is Mr. An Egg Minister, or a Political Pot, translated by Pentti Järvinen, directed by Neil Hardwick, set design by Hannu Lindholm, costumes by Maija Pekkanen, dramaturg Annikki Ellonen. Premiere at the Helsinki City Theatre on 17.8.2000 and at the Tampere Workers’ Theatre on 2.11.2000.