– –
THEATRE
Eemeli, an entertaining children’s musical
Eemeli’s antics became a resounding action drama
-
Astrid Lindgren: Eemeli of Vaahteramäki. The big stage of the Helsinki City Theatre. Dramatization by Mats Huddén and Anders Baggesen.
Music by Sören Dahl and Georg Riedel. Translated by Henri Kapulainen, songs translated by Jukka Virtanen. Directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi,
conductor Markku Luuppala, set design Oskari Torvinen, costumes Irmeli Toivanen, choreography Liisa Risu, lighting Markku Penttilä,
sound by Antero Mansikka. Cast: Mika Nuojua, Susa Saukko, Heidi Herala, Matti Rasila, Petriikka Pohjanheimo, Kristo Salminen,
Riitta Havukainen.
Both major theatres in Helsinki have kindly taken the youngest viewers into account. And as it happens, both
on the big stage, Astrid Lindgren will be available. -
At the National Theatre, Pippi Longstocking continues for the fourth year, and always sold out. -
You don’t have to be a great fortune teller to guess that Vaahteramäki, who is playing pranks on the big stage of the City Theatre,
Eemeli also has a long life ahead of him. Thus, the performance directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi has a double cast right from the start. -
Eemeli is a show for the whole family. To be more specific: it is entertainment for the whole family and especially for children, no more, but no less. -
The entire large machinery of the City Theatre is connected to Eemeli. The revolving stage is buzzing, there is an orchestra, a dance group, choirs. Stage effects
From the swaying midsummer bonfire to the stunningly beautiful snowfall. -
There has been no stinginess in the troops. In the yard of Kissankulma, there are plenty of frolickers, chickens and sheep, villagers and party guests. -
There is also a large group of people in the market. Strong women and men are bulging both in front of and inside the tents, and the six-man
the orchestra plays like in any Broadway musical. -
- Why has been chosen
Eemeli? Eemeli, which was last seen as a Swedish TV series, is of course a good counterforce to Pippi, but when Lindgren
There are much more multi-layered and even more compelling stories. -
For example, My Brother Lionheart or Ronja could both be more topical in terms of themes for today’s children. -
Of course, children’s theatre can also be this, sounding, dancing and spectacular action theatre. -
Lindgren’s familiar flaxen-headed wild animal takes care of the hustle and bustle. -
There’s always a bowl stuck in my head, my little sister on a flagpole or my dad in a goal. -
And again, a familiar command echoes across the stage, shouted in his father’s voice: “Eeeemeliii, to the workshop. . . .” -
300 wooden sculptures are already on the shelves to commemorate the detention days. -
- On the big stage
People just don’t come close, not their sadness, fear or joy. Not even their speeches. -
The actors use clumsy button microphones taped to their temples, familiar from musicals, which make speech rattle
coldly and mechanically. After all, smaller, more invisible devices that amplify sound more naturally have already been invented. -
Human warmth, which is also Eemeli’s basic current, remains behind the scenes. The main role is played by tuning up mishaps. -
Beauty is in the stage images faithful to Oskari Torvinen’s book, at its most effective when driving in a sleigh in a snowy Christmas forest
under the high starry sky or when autumn comes to the trees in the yard. -
- Functional
The form is well-directed, precise and fluid – and fun. -
Things are happening all the time, and for city children, the exotic rural milieu with its numerous animal friends lives on in many colours. -
But the spectacular dance and singing scenes are more of a dramaturgical interlude to the performance than to the story
necessary. -
The Danish dramatization, based on the narrator role of Eemeli’s mother, is a bigger musical adaptation than in Finland before
performed Lindgren’s own arrangement. -
A big stage requires grand gestures. -
However, Mika Nuojua’s Eemeli and Susa Saukko’s younger sister Iida are still the main attractions of the performance. -
You can identify with them even if you don’t live in the countryside. They act with the right attitude, they don’t try to be more children than necessary. -
- Eemeli is also
really a hero, a robber hunter faster than the police. In the adaptation, to the delight of adults, the maid Liinan and the servant have also been raised
Aatu’s variably progressing love story. -
The love couple, interpreted by Petriikka Pohjanheimo and Kristo Salminen, sympathetically represents the adult world of the father and mother, Heidi
along with Herala and Matti Rasila. Fortunately, they are not very choking. -
The merger of the City Theatre and Little Finland is a challenge for the future of children’s theatre in Helsinki. It depends on the City Theatre
now how Helsinki takes responsibility for the children’s audience. -
Eemeli represents the traditional model, while The Big Bad Wolf, which has moved from Pasila to the small stage, renews itself in a cheerfully anarchic way
fairy tale tradition. -
Hopefully, resources will be focused on developing new things without prejudice. Perhaps Finland could then become a children’s theatre country one day?