Review: Prinsessa Ruusunen – Paluu tulevaisuuteen
The hilarious gang of fairy godparents and other hits – Marco Bjurström breathed a flame of joy and success into the youth musical
ShedHelsinki’s youth musical Sleeping Beauty – Back to the Future is enjoyable and well-flowing entertainment from start to finish.
Journalist Eeva-Stiina Pesonen went to see the premiere at Studio Pasila:
The musical Sleeping Beauty – Return to the Future, cast for children and young people, is excellent entertainment that rivals adult productions, or is better than them in terms of energy and authenticity. At the same time, it is also a production that emphasizes diversity and corporate social responsibility at its best.
The story of Sleeping Beauty takes on new dimensions when the princess in the classic fairy tale is a modern-day teenager with the growing pains of puberty. And to make the story even more wonderful, he doesn’t sleep a hundred years ahead, but wakes up in the raucous 1970s, the symbols and images of which can also be enjoyed in the musical.
The youth energy grabs you and the show is full of quite good “flap” – thanks to the translator Sami Parkkinen, sparkling costumes – thanks to costume designer-artist Jarkko Valte and hilarious performances.
I especially remember Viljami Rosvall’s yoga-practicing hippie king, Pauliina Kiuru’s beautiful evil elf Myrtle and a group of caricatured and deliciously dressed fairy godparents who go crazy in Elphinstone’s special academy and wherever. Clever!
Some of the young people who play the fairy godparents actually work as children’s teachers in the Skene musical theatre club, which is the backbone of the ShedHelsinki production.
The multi-talented Janne Saarinen’s Sleeping Beauty’s Good Conscience and Alvari Stenbäck’s Sleeping Beauty’s Bad Conscience can be admired in their dynamic stage movements. From scene to scene, they move the story forward. The role of Sleeping Beauty is played by Adela Ogunbor and Josefiina Vanamo alternately. All the main roles are occupied by children this year.
In the children’s group music and dance scenes, many children and young people performing in wheelchairs, as well as young people with Down syndrome, will be seen on stage. The joy of performing, participation and success is touching. According to ShedHelsinki’s operating model, children can participate in the order of registration, and the production wants to emphasize that everyone is good enough.
Creative Director Marco Bjurström and the rest of ShedHelsinki have blown the flames of their gang’s performance. The same thing was expressed by Niki Sorsa, a young person with special needs who plays a newspaper salesman in a wheelchair, at the end of the premiere: I just want to say that these young people here are important to Marco. Marco has told me many times that you are an important man, Sorsa said, and made many eyebrows in the audience moisten.
The script is taken from ShedHelsinki’s role model, London’s Chickenshed, which is a theatre in London that emphasises diversity. Chickenhead has been strongly supported by Princess Diana. There are already preliminary plans for next Christmas’s ShedHelsinki screening. That is also done in collaboration with Chickenshed in London. Bjurström is currently reading possible scripts for next year.
ShedHelsinki’s production has also taken a big leap forward from last year, when it carried out the theatre project “Peter Pan” at the Alexander Theatre. This year, the Helsinki City Theatre joined in and the performance made it to the stage of Studio Pasila, which is a ready-made theatre environment with technical equipment and professionals. This year, there were almost half as many children as last year, and there are also two rotations in the shows.
ShedHelsinki represents corporate responsibility at its best. Last spring, Elisa established the ShedHelsinki Foundation, which supports diverse child and youth work that takes children with special needs into account. According to Veli-Matti Mattila, Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, it is very important that through production, young people can make their dreams come true, which might otherwise be impossible to achieve.
The musical will be performed at the Helsinki City Theatre’s Studio Pasila just before Christmas. There are still screenings on Monday and Tuesday.