Review: Peppi Pitkätossu

Pippi Longstocking is back!

The most anticipated premiere of the autumn – in fact, a repeat premiere – arrived yesterday. Pippi Longstocking, performed at the Helsinki City Theatre in 2015, was such a success with audiences that the theatre fortunately included it in its repertoire again.

-Wow, how wonderful, said my six-year-old grandson Noel with wide eyes as he stepped into the auditorium of the big stage for the first time in his life. Nine-year-old Lilian walked to row eight as usual, after all, she was already a veteran of the Pippi performance, having already seen it twice.

-Tonight, it’s Pippi, it’s Anna-Riikka, Lilian asked.

Yes, the double-manned lead role was played in the re-premiere by the charming and energetic Anna-Riikka Rajanen. (Maija Lang is certainly just as good, and from the children’s reactions, I conclude that we will watch Pippi again this autumn.)

Pippi, directed by Milko Lehto, is made with love. She and her team interpret the adventures of the world’s strongest girl created by Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) with humour and warmth. Pippi defeats stupid robbers, cops and social workers with her cunning and throws Strong-Adolf on his back on the carpet in the circus (the convincingly agile Panu Vauhkonen, who is also seen in the role of Pippi’s pirate father).

The roles of Pippi’s best friends, Tommi and Annika, are played by Raili Raitala and Petrus Kähkönen. The same Petrus who is currently playing a fine and completely different role on the small stage of the City Theatre in the play The Golden Calf. A versatile actor, on top of that, musical and athletic (last autumn’s Shrek!)

In the midst of all the action and fun, there are also quiet moments in the play. I noticed that Noel was quietly wiping his eyes when Pippi missed her father or that Tommi and Annika were sad to be separated from Pippi.

They turned into tears of laughter in an instant when Ursula Salo’s hilariously funny and important Mrs. Ryöppyvaara from the Social Services Department tried to get Pippi under control and in order. “Tuut, tuut,” Pippi said to the lady and pretended to squeeze her at the breasts. And what about the fart calm that Pippi puts on the lady’s chair…! A sure thing, as the retired actor of the City Theatre Asko Sarkola told in his biography I wrote, that is, a fart on stage!

The full potential of the big stage has been exploited in Jyrki Karttunen’s choreography, Markus Tsokkinen’s set design and Riitta Röpelinen’s costumes. More children’s plays like this!