Review: Aikuisten joulukalenteri
The dance group offers kind but functional therapy to adults who have been battered by Christmas
Is the burden weighing on your back, is Christmas stress stressing? Don’t worry, Christmas therapist Leo-Matti “Aivo” Kurkiainen will help! You no longer have to settle for just suffering in silence from the mental ailments caused by Christmas, as there is now a unique, healing Christmas therapy available for trauma on the Small Stage of the Helsinki City Theatre.
Based on the description of the performance and last spring’s Jemina Show, I expected Helsinki Dance Company, the City Theatre’s dance group, to put on a bold show where Christmas clichés would get a very cold ride and the limits of good taste would be tested. Compared to these expectations, the Adult Advent Calendar skies surprisingly familiar and safe trails, albeit with an ironic twist, of course. There is no danger of excesses, and Christmas carols are mostly played quite traditionally. On the other hand, that’s a good thing: the kind but very entertaining and warm-hearted show is suitable for a wide range of viewers to enjoy the evenings. The performance is effortlessly open even to those for whom dance is still unfamiliar territory.
During the evening, the doors of the advent calendar will be opened, revealing various therapy tasks. The Nutcracker, the Lucia Maiden, the Magic of Christmas, the Christmas Elf, the Christmas Tree, the Tierna Boys’ star-spinner Mänkki, the Christmas Angel and Santa Claus helpfully throw themselves into Kurkiainen’s clients and assistants. Inspired by the opening teddy bear, Santa Claus (Mikko Vihma) talks straight on the couch about how hard it is to work around the clock. We hear new sides of the stories of some Christmas characters in other ways as well. Heidi Naakka is excellent, especially as the rancid Italian Lucia maiden.
At times, we spin into tropical atmospheres, and the centenary of Finland is commemorated together with improvised choreography. Of course, Christmas parties don’t go without a lot of fun. Christmas cleaning is waiting for a doer, but is it still possible to escape the vacuum cleaner?
The doors open at a rapid pace, and one cliché after another finds its way into the hands of a skilled therapy group. The performance ends with a bit of a bang, and at least I didn’t immediately realise that, oh, this is really it. On the other hand, it also showed that time flies in the stands, and I would have liked to watch the show longer, which is always a good sign, of course.
I especially admire how versatile the performers are. On stage, there is dancing, singing and acting in a delightful and genuine way.
Therapy pays particular attention to stressed mothers and couples who are arguing with tension. The expectations of Christmas and their non-fulfilment could have been used as an even more in-depth and diverse source of content. However, some of the distressing things related to Christmas seem to be such that you can’t combine them with such light-hearted rejoicing unless you want to change the genre and mood at the same time.
The Christmas calendar for adults engages the audience in a gentle and appropriate way. Jyrki Karttunen, who created the concept and choreography of the performance, expertly guided the audience through the therapy sessions as the Christmas therapist Kurkiainen. We got to throw soft toys, shout and even dance. Involving the audience was a very good solution, and at least at the premiere, the gang went admirably well.
The costume, make-up and hairdressing teams have once again had to tear up. The Christmas tree (Tiina Peltonen) is a great revelation in its different outfits. The glittering elf (Mikko Paloniemi), on the other hand, has been tuned in a fun way for modern times. The apt workman’s clothes revealed under the traditional Santa Claus costume also made the audience laugh. In general, the show is visually rewarding also in terms of set design and lighting. The rotating stage adds even more rounds to Kurkiainen’s therapy.
Perhaps the most impressive moment of the dance was the light and beautiful solo of the Nutcracker, aka Jyrki Kasperi, in the middle of soft toys. The fast-paced street dance-inspired joint song with the DJ, on the other hand, made the foot tap to the beat in the stands as well, and the play to the Elves’ Christmas Night tiptap beat was great in all its end-stage madness. In general, I fell in love with how many different choreographies and movements you can see in one piece – just like in the Jemina Show I saw last spring.
The therapy offered by HDC is exactly the kind of cheer you need for gloomy and snow-free evenings, especially in November. I also chose the Adult Advent Calendar in advance as one of my autumn cultural picks.
The gentle message that you can prepare for Christmas in other ways than by toiling yourself half to death nurtures the mind of those who are crushed under endless to-do lists. I am reminded of the old wisdom of the Marthas, according to which it is worth cleaning the cupboards if you plan to spend your Christmas in the closet. Otherwise, it’s not so good if you don’t swing the vacuum cleaner as much as you intended, and you don’t make Christmas cards, or there aren’t five self-made root vegetable boxes on the festive table on the eve.