Review: Kaasua, komisario Palmu!

Gas, Inspector Palmu – murder jazz at the City Theatre

The novel character Inspector Palmu, created by Mika Waltari at the end of the 1930s, will now take to the country’s largest theatre stage for the second time, as “Inspector Palmu’s Mistake”, which was seen at the Helsinki City Theatre a couple of years ago, will be continued in the crime comedy “Gas, Inspector Palmu!”, dramatised by Joel Elstelä.

“Gas, Inspector Palmu!”, which premiered at the end of November, is based on Waltari’s detective novel “Who Murdered Mrs. Skrof?”, in which a brilliant inspector and his detective investigate the case of a rich widow who died of gas poisoning in an apartment building in southern Helsinki. Following the clues, it begins to become clear that one or two of the widow’s inner circle has not only had a motive for the murder but also had the opportunity to sneak into the lady’s apartment to turn on the gas tap.

Not many people have read Waltari’s detective novel, but all Finns – with the possible exception of the youngest ones – have certainly seen the film adaptation made in the early 1960s. Matti Kassila’s film is so strongly drawn in the collective consciousness that there has been no desire to ignore it even in the stage interpretation, but the performance borrows the world of the iconic Palm films and their delicious characters whenever they see fit. For example, the main trio, the grumpy boss Palmu (Kari Väänänen), the witty, laconic Kokki (Petrus Kähkönen) and the enthusiastic but mischievous Virta (Heikki Ranta), are familiar from the films.
And even though Palmu is the title character of the performance, he is not necessarily the main character, but watches from the sidelines when others happen and others speak, and draws his quick conclusions from it. Palmu, who looks downwards at his fellow travelers, seems to be a loop or two ahead all the time as the knots of the murder mystery are unraveled.
The playing field of the City Theatre’s performance is deliberately and aptly manned, including the wingers. Jouko Klemettilä, a member of the house’s trusted chain, does a brilliant acting job with small and slightly larger gestures as the slick preacher Blackhead, and another veteran, Eero Saarinen, draws a funny caricature of Lanne with court training, leaving the viewer deliberately hesitating whether the character is a bird or a fish.

On the other hand, there is no doubt about what Kurt Kuurna, a decadent artist, is. Miiko Toiviainen, who has just graduated from the Theatre Academy, who resembles the master of ceremonies who escaped from the musical Cabaret, brazenly takes over the space with his eye make-up and blushing every time he appears on stage.
The species of affection of the degenerate son of an old noble family towards the Raikuli boy Kaarle Lankela (Tuukka Leppänen) was seen especially at the time of Waltari’s book, but even at the time of Kassila’s film, as perverse, and in itself a criminal in society’s norms. Compared to these parallel works, today’s stage dramatization is naturally much more permissive towards Kuurna, even though the external framework of the performance goes stylishly in the epoch across the board.
The set design designed by Pekka Korpiniity and the costumes by Elina Kolehmainen exude the fine-tuned world of black-and-white film. Petteri Heiskanen’s lights with their precisely adjusted colour temperatures enhance the countless shades of grey on the stage, and Toni Haaranen’s video projections reflecting the lost Helsinki of past decades, which even include a clip of Kassila’s film, also play an important role.

One of the most successful solutions in the play is the jazz band brought to the stage, featuring Joakim Berghäll, Jori Huhtala, Mikko Karjalainen, Panu Savolainen and Tuomas Timonen. The quintet, which plays in the spirit of film noir, structures the building blocks of the murder mystery with their “crime jazz” arranged for woodwinds and brass, contra, drums and vibraphone/marimba, which is written by Timo Hietala, known for his film compositions.
Janne Brelih’s mixing is appropriately restrained and controlled, and this time the effects implementation has exceptionally been able to rely on live sound sources. In addition to playing, the band is also commissioned to produce millimetre-precise synchronous effects for selected stage events, such as footsteps and the crunch of paper, rattles and jingles. The solution fits well with the atmosphere of a stage work that borrows the means of film elsewhere, especially when the “foleys” are deliberately executed right in front of the viewer’s eyes.

The City Theatre’s dramatisation of the Palm is a bold, even slightly cheeky combination of theatrical play and stylish swing. It plays with and loosens a little bit of everything – from the world of effects to genre changes. The nightclub dancer Iiri Salmia (Vuokko Hovatta), known from the book and the film, has been transformed into a singer in the stage version, and so the jazz quintet on stage occasionally gets a vocally magnificent and outwardly pleasing soloist.
Kujanpää’s crime comedy also turns the gears on the track of a full-blooded musical for a moment, when the crazy duo of Toiviainen and Leppänen performs their duet praising morphine. A joyful musical insight is also experienced in the police identification line, when the entire motley cavalcade of accused decides to download their defense speech in the form of a scat song! And that’s what the explanations with the police often tend to be: just as diipa-daapa.

The first book in the series, “Inspector Palmu’s Error”, was seen two years ago on the City Theatre’s intimate Arena stage, and now “Gas, Inspector Palmu!” is reaping success on the building’s renovated main stage. Let’s hope that HKT will bring the final part of the trilogy “Tähdet kertovat, Inspector Palmu” to the delight of theatre audiences in the future.