Review: Vaahteramäen Eemeli

There it is, little Iida’s skirt as a flag on the pole
The children’s musical, which has been expanded to large proportions, is the familiar homely Eemeli of Vaahteramäki

There is a Midsummer party in Kissankulma and the guests have just arrived. But where is the Iida girl, Susa Saukko?

THEATRE
  Eemeli from Vaahteramäki with his unintentional tricks is a very familiar thing. You would think that all children would already know its highlights and characters, the bursting broth bowls and the chickens bobbing in the kitchen.
  What is it all about when the Helsinki City Theatre’s children’s musical is proudly told that it is a new Danish adaptation, a musical version with compositions, songs, crowd scenes and dancing domestic animals? Perhaps a prime example of systematic productization.
  Maybe even that.
  But the familiar self-evident looks completely different when you sit in the giant auditorium with your little companions, nervous about how everything will turn out. Everything should be familiarly cozy, a bit like borrowed from a book’s illustrations. There must be nothing foreign or strange about Eemeli, and there is nothing in the performance itself. The fun should be benevolent and kind, the mother must be gentle and sit down every evening to turn the misadventures of her little rascals into literature.
  The plot that has been built into the story with the aim of attracting the audience goes differently from the constant search for surprising peculiarities; The Big Theatre is such a strange and exciting experience for the little viewers that it is only a relief to find a calmingly homely story on stage.
  Even the character of Kommandoora can have enough problems if you happen to be five years old and not yet so well aware of the subtleties of Maple Hill. “I wonder if it’s a witch?” was the frightened question as Eija Vilpas snuck into the yard at dusk, a hooked and grey-haired figure.

Hasty
  You don’t have to be very fond of the musical version, do you? The succulent story is taxed when the tones and lines are replaced with slightly confusing songs and dance scenes, and even the thick prolongation is conspicuous by its absence.
  On the scale of the large stage, however, the dances, singing venues and crowds bring a nice filler, if sometimes even hasty restlessness as the whole is only just finding its rhythm in a large-scale performance.
  The main thing, the hilarious mishaps quickly emerge from the whole one after the other. Eemeli is hurting all the time in this adaptation, but on the other hand, he seems to jump from one scene to another without really being able to develop situations.
  And the villagers don’t really have time to get to know each other when they rush in as a hungry and noisy crowd that they don’t remember to introduce.
  But Pentti Kotkaniemi is able to highlight the style of the events and the main characters as recognizable and clear from the whole. There, Eemeli himself adventures with his puffs and mushrooms, as a character interpreted by Mika Nuojua in a captivatingly childlike and open way. He is full of inventive activity and mishaps just happen to him, which is all well-interpreted and unpretentiously sensed Astrid Lindgren’s Eemeli of Maple Hill.

Amusing
  The Helsinki City Theatre also features Susa Saukko’s beautifully singing Iida as a character transformed into a pigtailed girl. Many kinds of tensions shake this little girl, who, on the one hand, is frightened by her impossible brother, and on the other hand, feels a tingling attraction to his daring life.
  The Danish adaptors have made Mother Alma into a narrator who, as if in response to the author, comments on the events and ties up the scenes. Heidi Herala is the hefty hostess of Kissankulma, an active and supportive character who snatches everything out of her role at the latest when she defends the size and sight of her Christmas meatballs.
  Dad is damn stingy and – to be honest – simple. Matti Rasila is a bit weak with his father Antton’s few qualities, but the roar is handsome, EEE-ME-LIIII… And skillful fun is his jumping with a can of paint on his feet to the music.
  The further you go into the supporting characters, the more pronounced the comedy is. Petrikkka Pohjanheimo’s Liina and Kristo Salminen’s Aatu muhnelo are lightly amusing, the frolicking chickens, sheep and horses are playfully hilarious, and Pöperö-Maija is a complete caricature in the manner of the poor in the village.
  The silly twists and turns of Vaahteramäki’s Eemeli, wistful moods, and colorful market trips can be found well outlined on stage in terms of style and tones. The rural idyll with its courtyards bordered by red-sided houses and the changing of places with the help of a revolving stage are also a natural part of the children’s play.