Review: Heinähattu, Vilttitossu ja Rubensin veljekset
Helsinki City Theatre: Hay Hat, Blanket Slipper and the Rubens Brothers
Helsinki City Theatre’s latest
Hay Hat and Felt Slipper
premiere and what I’ve seen before
Risto the Rapper
performance, it must be said that Sinikka and Tiina Nopola’s children’s books work extremely well as theatre, and in a way, the same suitability for performance and acting is evidenced by
Kaisa Rastimon
Guided by
Hay Hat and Felt Slipper
movie.
The characters created by the Nopolas come to life through action, and the characters are born from personal ways of doing things and a caricatured orientation towards certain things. The stories are strongly plotted, and the main plot is embroidered with a suitable number of related subplots. In this way, a significant number of levels are built into the work, which hold very different people – for example, people of different ages – in their grip.
Premiered on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre
Hay Hat, Blanket Slipper and the Rubens Brothers
performance would not be missed by an adult at any price, and there is plenty of joy in the story for child viewers of very different ages.
Happy
Overall
Katja Krohn directs theatre performances for children with full-bodied professionalism and a lively vision.
Hay Hat, Blanket Slipper and the Rubens Brothers
is a happy whole in tone, where joy, anarchy, excitement, mundanity and imagination bloom in the right proportions.
There is a good balance throughout the performance – there is no lack of sensitivity in fun and there is no lack of fun in sensitivity. In addition, it feels like Krohn also makes use of everyday experience of life with children when building the performance as a whole: after a boisterous chase, the performance ends up in a calm and calming atmosphere. Among them, it is good to descend from the theatre experience back into your everyday life.
The music composed by Iiro Rantala for the performance is once again excellent theatre music. In some songs, the melodies of the music and the vocal ranges of the singers do not really match, but a few numbers, such as the freedom song of Heinahattu and Blanket Slipper, as well as the swimming song of the policemen and especially the solo of the avenger Isonapa are perfect both as songs and in terms of performance.
Personal
personalities
Hay Hat, Blanket Slipper and the Rubens Brothers
theatre performance is not exactly identical to the book of the same name, for example, the girls’ little brother is missing from the stage, but his well-being has also been taken into account in the script. A few other things are a little different, too. The simplifications work in favor of the performance, the story progresses quickly and the dramatic twists and turns give the performance a good rhythm.
Of course, the key prerequisite for success is staffing, and it works brilliantly at the Helsinki City Theatre. Susa Saukko is sensitive and kind as a Hay Hat without being a bit flat, while Merja Pietilä is a vigorous and bold Blanket Slipper and yet also a believable little girl person. Their cooperation is seamless and equal.
The same thanks could be extended to the entire group of performers, which is actually divided into pairs throughout. Pertti Koivula’s Isonapa and Seppo Halttunen’s Rillirousku are excellent both as a couple and as individuals, and the police officers’ singing and dancing numbers are absolutely thrilling.
All in all, the choreographies of the performance are great in their simple functionality and wonderfully precise execution.
The ladies of Alibulleen, played by Anitta Niemi and Eeva-Liisa Haimelin, are charmingly complementary siblings. In their case, Elina Kolehmainen’s already successful costumes are at their most stunning.
Multidimensional
Mother figure
Hanna Kattilakoski, the mother of Hay Hat and Blanket Slipper, gets a lot of space in the Rubens brother story, and Eija Vilpas gets to perform in the role with carefully dosed comedy. Vilpas really manages to take all the humor out of Hanna’s antics at the same time and still keep her as a rather mundane character who is quite close to realistic credibility. It is very refreshing to meet such a multidimensional mother figure in a children’s play.
Father Matti Kattilakoski, on the other hand, is mostly left in the background of the characters, but the role still has enough material for Matti Rasila’s sympathetic and calming scientist character, who always finds interesting things to do.
Oskari Torvinen’s set design is pleasantly naïve, although the short-lived cityscape at the beginning is very general, but the lake landscape of the holiday resort is wonderfully flooded with the feeling of summer in Risto Heikkerö’s lighting with its fresh, pure colors.
OUTI LAHTINEN
Sinikka and Tiina Nopola:
Hay Hat, Blanket Slipper and the Rubens brothers. Helsinki Commercial Theatre, directed by Katja Krohn, music by Iiro Rantala, set design by Oskari Torvinen, costumes by Elina Kolehmainen, lighting by Risto Heikkerö, sound by Antero Mansikka. Premiere on a small stage 2.10.