Review: Ei kiitos

No thanks @ Helsinki City Theatre

There is a couple who have been together for a long time. There is a couple’s daughter whom they both love. There is ordinary everyday life, a trip to the south, work, friends, video games, cooking, babysitting a teenager addicted to a phone, animal videos. Family life. There is also a problem, a big one. Heli (Vappu Nalbantoglu) wants to. Matti (Antti Timonen) did not. So what is the solution to this?

In addition to the play based on Anna-Leena Härkönen’s novel No Thanks, there is also a film about the same story. I had already read and seen the book and the movie before this, so not two without a third and the third time really tells, isn’t it. I didn’t quite remember everything that happened, and of course this is a bit different when read in a book or seen on a screen than on stage, even though the same people and the same things are involved in each version. In any case, this stage version of No Thanks, which premiered at the Helsinki City Theatre on 7 February, has been very successful, it’s funny, but not too funny, but the idea of the subject is still there. After all, the themes of the performance are not something for laughter, at least not everyone.

I have to say that I was really waiting for Jarno (Pyry Äikää) to appear on stage… And it seemed to take time, even though it was because I couldn’t remember where in the plot this charming German student would pop into class. Heli works as a German teacher, and surprisingly, the workplace also has an answer to the passion problems in a relationship. The 28-year-old young man Jarno is undeniably captivating when he flirts with his teacher with a grin on his face. Pyry Äikää plays the role with a brilliant touch, he makes Jarno both carefree and a little mischievous as well as friendly and polite. A very great performance! Jarno and Heli’s getting stuck in the elevator is perhaps one of my favorite parts.

Vappu Nalbantoglu is insanely good and a perfect choice for the role of Heli, she captures the woman’s different emotions so nicely, her frustration with Matti and her crush on Jarno, the struggle over whether Heli wants to cheat, how it would affect her whole life, and what about herself? Nalbantoglu makes Heli believable and interesting, yet an ordinary woman with ordinary dreams and sorrows. A great character and nicely acted! Antti Timonen’s Matti, on the other hand, would like to be alone, without his wife’s constant attempts to approach him. Video games would take time and you should have the right to say “no”. Timonen also succeeds very well in his role, Matti is so different from the other characters in the performance that his silence and introspection bring a whole new perspective to the story.

Leenamari Unho and Aksinja Lommi play the other roles in the play, including Heli’s friend Manna, played by Unho, a rather funny and delightful, outspoken woman, and Sissi, Heli and Matti’s daughter, played by Lommi, through whom Lommi perfectly reaches the rebellious but good-natured teenager. Lommi is also great in the role of Jarno’s dog, as well as Jorgos, who can be found on a holiday in the south! Leenamari Unho is also good as Heli’s mother and Matti’s father. The five actors have been chosen successfully, they do a good job on stage, and the relationships between the characters are believable and natural.

The set design (Tuomas Lampinen) is quite simplistic, but it works very well. A big plus for Toni Haaranen’s video design, great to watch and works excellently. The people on the stage smoothly slip through the white fabrics behind the stage and onto the stage, sometimes this is a bit disturbing, but for the most part, the fabrics are used quite inventively. Freedom is danced to at a fast pace and the audience applauds it excitedly, as well as the entire performance after it ends. This was good, funny too and also thought-provoking. Successful acting, smooth performance and quite entertaining just over two hours.