Review: Fingerpori

Loyal and exhilarating Fingerpori

You probably know Pertti Jarla’s two-minded Fingerpori comics. I’ve been reading Jarla’s comics since I was a child. When I was trying to improve my viewing of plays this spring, I asked my friend, who also likes these comics, to the Helsinki City Theatre’s play Fingerpori, thinking that we would both get the boost we needed.

I read in Helsingin Sanomat that the play Fingerpori, written by Petja Lähde, was first performed in Naantali two years ago. Inspired by this, the movie Fingerpori will apparently also be released in October this year! I think you have to see that too.

The beginning didn’t go as smoothly for us as it did in Strömsö (when would it be?), because at the Railway Square our train started to have problems just at the moment of departure and we were afraid that we wouldn’t make it to the performance. Luckily the train left 10 minutes before the start of the show and there we were running like the last day to Studio Pasila, where we were exactly at 7 pm. Thanks to the wonderful staff, we were still able to join the performance after the stage doors closed!

The performance begins with a situation where everything is fine in Fingerpori. Then Heimo Vesa is called to an emergency meeting with Mayor Homelius: Fingerpori is about to be forcibly annexed to Helsinki! They decide to shoot a video diary of the people of Fingerpori to convince them of the impossibility of a forced merger.

My friend and I were both impressed by how well such an iconic comic book had been created into such a great performance that was faithful to the original comic. Of course, it helped that Pertti Jarla himself has apparently been involved in the project in some way. We were especially amazed at how believably HKT’s characters had been made to look like Jarla’s cartoon character. Even though there were only seven actors, the characters were spinning and changing on stage at a very fast pace. The actors were brilliant, especially Jari Pehkonen, who played Heimo Vesa, and e.g. Pekka Huotari, who played the Black Mask and Jesus, were my favorites.

The set design was also very functional and versatile: characters stepped onto the stage from the right, left, middle and bottom. The jokes were familiar to Jarla, although I had read most of them in the newspapers. However, it didn’t matter, I laughed at them anyway. I was also pleased with how much topical issues had been accommodated in the proposal since the upcoming parliamentary elections. My friend and I were both impressed, and my friend didn’t find anything bad about the two-hour show, and I have to stumble over him. So I recommend the show especially to Fingerpori lovers who are looking for a fun evening with good comedy!