Review: Palkkamurhaajan painajainen

The Nightmare of a Hitman Slaps Mercilessly

Here’s the funniest farce of the fall! Helsinki City Theatre’s play The Nightmare of a Hitman is wildly funny. I haven’t laughed so much at the theatre since Tampere Theatre’s production of The Play That Goes Wrong.

I wasn’t at all surprised when I read in the script that the plays of the Helsinki City Theatre and the Tampere Theatre have the same director, Mika Eirtovaara. Brilliant farce for both!

In The Hitman’s Nightmare, two men are accommodated in adjacent hotel rooms. The first of them (Iikka Forss) is a photographer by profession. He is depressed after his wife leaves the marriage after his psychiatrist and desperately plans suicide.

Another man (Santeri Kinnunen) has booked a hotel room to shoot a prisoner arriving at the courthouse through the hotel window. Both men’s plans change when they meet each other.

To the soup is added the exuberant and fast-paced hotel attendant, the suicide’s ex-wife, her psychiatrist and even the police rush through the door. The result is a fast-paced farce. The audience gets to enjoy the ridiculous twists and turns of the play.

Dance moves in amphetamine fumes

The brilliant actors played their great comedic sides. There was no lack of spanking in the play. It was a miracle that no one was hurt too badly, because different fight scenes followed each other at such a fast pace.

Especially the trio Santeri Kinnunen, Iikka Forss and Jouko Klemettilä shine in the play.

Kinnunen’s face is really expressive. At the beginning of the play, he is a hard-boiled murderer, but the medication makes him twist his face in a funny way. Especially his dance moves in amphetamine fumes are indescribably great.

Iikka Forss performs his part in a suitably over-the-top way as a moving backpack. Klemettilä’s role as a psychiatrist makes me laugh. His growl is absolutely incredible.

Antti Peltola appears as a hotel servant who is a little too eager to trot around the rooms, commenting comically on what he sees, while rolling his eyes. Absolutely brilliant performance from him as well!

The staging was inventive: both hotel rooms have been placed next to each other on the stage, so the audience could follow the events in both hotel rooms at the same time.