Review: Hansu ja Pirre – Mieleni minun tekevi

Joy bursts at Hansu and Pirre’s Finnish evenings

The Helsinki City Theatre opened in August after a major renovation, but you can guess that the final cleaning has still not been done. Pirren Putsi ja Siivous from Loimaa has now been hired for the job, whose owner and only employee, Pirjo “Pirre” Kaasinen, is known as an energetic person. Under the guise of the final cleaning, Pirre has been able to negotiate the lease of the theatre’s small stage at an affordable price. Therefore, there will now be an art festival that draws on Finland’s 100-year history, in the same way as the art section of the Loimaa Darts Club. The evenings will begin with a daring installation, which means that you have now been warned.

There is sublime and traditional. The art section, led by its active women Pirre and Hansu, gives it its all, and sometimes even too much to the delight of the audience. There is art, dance, recitation, play and sing-alongs. You can actually forget about all the other Finland 100 parties and get a comprehensive cultural experience in this one package. Crazy, crazy! And a lot of fun.

It’s been 30 years since Eija Vilpas (Pirre) and Riitta Havukainen (Hansu) won the hearts of Finns in the television comedy series Fakta homma. Pirre’s husband Heka was played in the series by Lasse Karkjärvi and Hansu’s now deceased spouse Aulis by Taneli Mäkelä. If the viewer was not ready to admit that little Hansu, Pirre, Aulis or Heka lived in them, then at the latest they found one next door. The success was so huge that a film was made.

So Riitta Havukainen and Eija Vilpas could easily have just cashed in on the old Fakta homma fans (and there are a lot of us). I appreciate that they have not done that, but carefully scripted and rehearsed their art evening into a finished and exhilarating whole. The execution is also versatile, not just two actors talking on static sets. There is music, movement and video installation, i.e. web art. Some of Hansu and Pirre’s cheeky party videos are of a higher quality than the real Finland 100 wonders that are being pushed on us this year.

In addition to Loimaa, Rauma, Kuopio, Lempäälä and Helsinki will receive fame and glory in the evenings. Sorry.

The programme of the art festival is also secretly educational. The performance of the Loimaa Darts Club’s drama group Kaiken takana on nainen lets us peek into the sauna of the sauna club of the wives of great men. It is a place of devotion to reminisce about the achievements of our cultural circles almost a century ago. Quite a few facts among them.

In between the art experiences, Pirre and Hansu also had time to take a stand on many topical topics and reflect on relationships and women’s ailments, among other things. At least at the premiere, the men in the audience also had a lot of fun.

Those under forty will surely miss many of the duo’s stories (“Oh WHAT a Fact ?!?”), but luckily there is a very special program number reserved for young people in the evenings: the 60th anniversary rap of the liver casserole. Hilarous.

I’m sure someone will be upset and there’s nothing you can do about it. However, after all the laughter from Hansu and Pirre’s art evenings, I was somehow left with a very patriotic feeling. Yes, every bag of peas has had to be thrown, every dance performance has had to stumble through, and every clumsy Kalevala recitation has taken to get into this mood. Both on stage and in the audience. You can and should be able to laugh at your country, as long as you do it with love.

I assume that Hansu and Pirre’s art evenings have been thought of as the City Theatre’s Christmas party attraction. I’d say it hits and sinks. Crazy, crazy! And a lot of fun.