Review: COMEBACK – räpätessä roiskuu
Helsinki City Theatre’s play predicts: Cheek will make a comeback next year
Rapper Cheek played his last gig at Mäkimonttu in Lahti in August 2018. Not even a year has passed since he makes a comeback in a play at the Helsinki City Theatre.
Actually, it’s not Cheek on stage, but rapper Biiffi. Still, every viewer realizes that this is a Cheek parody.
According to the play Comeback – rapping splashes, it has been two years since Biiffi left the stage behind. Now it’s time for a comeback gig. If the play is right, the real Cheek will return to the stage next year.
The very existence of the play speaks to the strong mark that the rapper in question has left on popular culture. Cheek’s personal brand attracts people to the theatre, even though he himself has not been involved in making the play and would not even be happy to see it.
Already in the promotional photos of the play distributed in advance, a rapper was seen sucking on a diamond pacifier. You don’t see a pacifier on stage, but instead the rapper pulls on diapers so that you don’t slip around during the gig. A manager is needed to help with diaper changes.
The parody makes us laugh at how perceptively director-screenwriter Sakari Hokkanen describes rap culture. He has recorded all the stereotypes associated with rappers in the play. The testosterone-scented masculinity is downright screaming about the main characters.
A manager is like a mother
The main role of the play as rapper Biiff is played by Peter Kanerva, who is a new acquaintance to me. He is not Cheek’s doppelganger, but he has adopted a lot of the gestures of his role model.
The play’s other rapper, Mela, aka Elastinen (Sauli Suonpää), has also adopted a macho attitude. Together they are like the Prophets.
The play tells the story of Biiffi’s comeback gig. The son of a rap god has returned to earth to perform songs that he has been spinning in his head for two years.
To celebrate his return, the Helsinki Olympic Stadium is full of people. The show is going to be megalomaniac and there will be glass cubes, pyramids and angels descending from the sky, among other things.
There are only a few hours left until the start of the comeback gig and Biiffi is completely nervous. He behaves like a little child. At one point, she is threatening her playmate Mela. At another moment, she is crying in the arms of manager Taina (Minna Koskela). For Biiffi, the manager is like a mother who encourages her insecure son.
Diamonds are not forever
Proper comedy always needs Eija Vilpanen. He has participated in the farces of the City Theatre countless times, and he will be involved this time as well.
Vilpas plays Biiffi’s grandmother, who has arrived from Nakkila. She is a demented elderly person who has run away from a nursing home only to see her grandchild’s return gig.
Grandma represents the kind of down-to-earth nature that the rap world would miss. He reminds us that diamonds are not forever either.
Another fresh character is Hanna (Janna Räsänen), a girl who represented girl power. His rap alongside Biiffi and Mela sounds surprisingly good.
All in all, the songs written for the play are handsome moves. They’re not exactly hit stuff, but they sound handsome on the Arena stage. Especially in the last song, the audience starts to be on fire.