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Charming Madmen
Teatteristudio Pasila offers a play that will make you cry and giggle. Elling is the title of the play and also its neurotic protagonist. Jouko Klemettilä captivates the audience with his adornment as the middle-aged mama’s son Elling. Together with the helpless and woman-sick Kjell Barne, aka Tuomas Uusitalo, they form a pair that is bound together by a fear of the outside world. The friends have just come out of the madhouse. Living is a bit scary, so they settle for binoculars from the shelter of the curtains of their new apartment. The play is based on Ingvar Ambjørnsen’s novel The Blood Brothers. The original name is Elling og Kjell Barne. The City Theatre has only taken the essentials from the name. However, the truth is that it is the chemistry between the actors that makes the play so hilarious. Director Tommi Auvinen has built the play on the conflicts and tensions between friends. Elling has a lot of cinematic elements that work surprisingly well on stage. Rock is playing and the friends are decorating their new apartment as if fast-forwarding. Eppu Salminen and Marjut Toivonen take on supporting roles to kick things up when the pace threatens to slow down. All in all, Elling manages to be both touching and funny at the same time, and somehow you get attached to its characters, even though they are just ordinary crazy people.