Review: Ilmasta rahaa

Laughter heals

My step was so light and my mind was cheerful when I stepped out of the premiere of the Helsinki City Theatre. Five of the slushy weather and other difficulties, and if laughter didn’t improve the whole world, then at least your own state of mind. And that’s the best thing about the theatre experience.

Money from the Air on the big stage is a farce at its best – lightning-fast replication, confusion after confusion and, of course, doors that are part of the set design through which people come and go.

The plot of the play focuses on a landlord who has been cheating Kela with fake subsidies for a couple of years. He drags his tenant, his wife, social welfare authorities, a funeral director and a couple of therapists into the mix. And of course, we have finished with a topical throw – our Minister of the Interior’s strange proposal for Kela detectives who would expose scams…

The farce written by the English playwright Michael Cooney (Cash On Delivery) gets a worthy interpretation under the direction of Sari Siikander. The play has been dramatized by Ari-Pekka Lahti and translated into Finnish by Reita Lounatvuori.

Siikander whips the entire ensemble into a speed where there is no weak link, no prolonged scenes, and the farce moves forward like a bullet train.

Pekka Strang and Janne Kataja are an excellent pair for the main roles, and their collaboration is seamless. Mikko Laine, played by Strang, eventually gets tangled up in his lies, and Kataja’s Otti Pelli tries to do everything he can to survive them.

Emilia Sinisalo as Inspector Jantunen plays one of the most striking roles in the play. He asks for signatures on grant applications and threatens the scammer with his superior, his monstrosity, Senior Officer Arja Tervo, played by Helena Haaranen.

Heidi Herala’s skills are once again in full bloom – she, if anyone, is skilled at farce, comedy and tragedy. Raili Raitala, Pekka Huotari, Jari Pehkonen, Sanna Saarijärvi and Kai Lähdesmäki, who played Uncle Erkki in the premiere, are the director’s true dream team!

Sari Siikander writes in the script: “Laughter has a healing effect, especially laughing together, and I once read that seven minutes of laughter is equivalent to a two-week holiday.”

However, this time we didn’t laugh for seven minutes, but for more than two hours. I mean, I feel like someone who has been on a long vacation!