Review: Näytelmä joka menee pieleen

The Play That Goes Wrong, which was seen at the Helsinki City Theatre last spring, returned to the repertoire, as last spring’s season was shorter than planned due to the coronavirus.

The popular British farce was previously performed in Swedish at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, and even though the play was easy to follow even with poor Swedish skills, it was fun to see the performance now also in Finnish. The play will be performed on the Arena stage in Hakaniemi, and it has been directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi.

The stage design is certainly familiar from all the different adaptations of the play for different theatres. On the left is a fireplace and a door, in the middle is a window and a cabinet clock, and on the right is a bookshelf, a door and a column that supports the second floor of the set structure. Before the actual start of the play, stage manager Anne (Eija Vilpas) tries to attach a shelf to the fireplace, and light and sound man Teuvo (Pekka Huotari) cleans the stage. (Psst, if you’ve always wanted to go to the theater stage, you should sit in the front row.)

When everything seems almost ready, the play’s frame story begins. The amateur theatre group is just about to start the premiere of their new play, which is the murder mystery of an Agatha crucian animal, Murder at Haversham Manor. The director of the play, Risto (Santeri Kinnunen), introduces the work and tells about the history of the theatre and the group’s previous performances, which have also been quite interesting.

The actual play begins with a situation in which the owner of Haversham Manor, Charles Haversham (Jari Pehkonen), is found dead on the couch. There is a heavy snowstorm outside, and only Haversham’s butler Perkins (Matti Rasila), girlfriend Florence Colleymoore (Sanna-June Hyde), her brother Thomas Colleymoore (Alex Anton) and Charles’ brother Cecil Haversham (Joel Hirvonen) are present at the mansion. Police Inspector Carter (Kinnunen) is called to investigate the case, who concludes that the murderer must be one of them.

However, the plot is completely beside the point, and the main point of the play is that everything possible really goes wrong. The actors act over or under, shuffle lines and come on stage too late or too early. There are also problems with lights, music, props and sets. Even though many of the blunders are predictable as is typical of the genre, the treatment of amateur actors still manages to surprise and the audience howls with laughter.

The chemistry of the cast works great, and the different characters complement each other. Inspector Carter, or “Risto”, i.e. the pretend director of the play, is the best amateur actor, and he acts as the voice of reason in the play. Instead, “Masa”, aka Cecil, flirts with the audience and compulsively describes his lines with his hands. “Sanna” Florence pulls off her role in an emphatically overdramatic way. “Henkka”, aka Perkins, forgets his lines and checks difficult words under his glove and still pronounces them incorrectly. “Anne” is forcibly dragged onto the stage and reads the lines straight from the paper in an emphatically Turku-like manner. “Roope”, aka Thomas, on the other hand, finds himself in physically awkward situations and literally hangs on the set, but still performs his role with honor. The pokka holds, and the show continues.

I recommend The Play That Goes Wrong even to those who are suspicious of farces. If a few strong words don’t matter, the play is also well suited for school-age children, and at least our own 10-year-old laughed at the play at least as loudly as his mother.