Review: Ilmasta rahaa

Money from the air

If you want to laugh, go see the farce Ilmasta raha (Money from the Air ) at the Helsinki City Theatre.

In the play, Mikko Laine (Pekka Strang) has been fired from the electricity company a couple of years earlier. He has not told his wife (Raili Raitala) about it, but has started to fiddle with Kela’s benefits and received all kinds of assistance and support.

The problem arises when Kela’s inspector Jantunen (Emilia Sinisalo) comes for a surprise inspection. Will Mikko’s house of cards collapse? How does he cope with the situation? To prevent everything from falling apart, Mikko forces his tenant Otto Pelli (Janne Kataja) into his plot.

As in a proper farce, the plot twists are absolutely incredible. Of course, we are running through the doors in a farcical way.

The text written by Michael Cooney works. The excellent Finnish translation is by Reita Lounatvuori. I was delighted that the text was not full of inferior ambiguity.

Under the direction of Sari Siikander, everything worked, as it should in a farce, to the nearest second to keep the rhythm snappy.

Pekka Strang is also used to acting in farces, and he did not disappoint this time either. A pleasant surprise was Janne Kataja, whom I have never seen on stage before. Emilia Sinisalo was absolutely delicious as the strict inspector Jantunen. Heidi Herala, a veteran of farces, was an empathetic and active grief support person in the right way.

I think all the actors flowed nicely into their roles.

Farce is a difficult sport. Its purpose is to make the viewers laugh. At least on the second night, the spectators enjoyed themselves and laughed. In this day and age, when all the news is just bad, we need laughter – and that’s what Ilmasta raha does: makes us laugh. I also had to wipe my eyes every now and then.