Review: Pullo cavaa ja aurinkoa
Rarely do actors laugh so spontaneously – Falling moustaches make the audience and actors drip
I have never heard such spontaneous laughter in the theatre as in the play A Bottle of Cava and Sun. The actors are dripping with laughter on stage, and nothing wants to come of the performance. It doesn’t bother the audience, because I laugh twice as much myself.
Laughter bubbles up with surprise. The character played by Sauli Suonpää has just dropped one side of his mustache, and the glue won’t hold even though Suonpää is putting the hairs in place. Soon another moustache falls off, and the audience tears up.
The actors manage to control the situation surprisingly well. However, it is obvious that Sauli Suonpää and Jaana Saarinen have plenty to hold back in laughter.
The moustache scene could easily be added to the play, as the actors’ genuine confusion puts an end to the sunniest play of the autumn.
Effervescent laughter and light
Helsinki City Theatre’s A Bottle of Cava and the Sun promises effervescent laughter and light in its very name. That’s what the play really offers. Heidi Herala, Jaana Saarinen, Aino Seppo and Eija Vilpas are an unbeatable foursome.
They play retired ladies who travel the world together. Now it’s time for sunny Portugal, where the ladies are renovating their own inn.
The set designers of the play have done a wonderful job. Indeed, an old factory hall has been created on the stage, which has been renovated into a glorious high school. Behind the large landscape windows, exotic plants from the south flutter.
The ladies have a collection of rules accumulated on their trips together, such as not talking about money on the trip and grandchildren only on the last day of the trip.
The youngest lady in the group, Inka (Heidi Herala), decides to break the group’s common rule. He has secretly acquired a Portuguese inn as a shared retirement home for the ladies. She hopes that the other ladies will contribute to the financing of the house.
In comedy, anything is possible
The play is basically a meeting of four flamboyant artist personalities. The characters are multidimensional with their personalities and histories.
The different personalities of the ladies have also been taken into account in the costumes. Tuulia (Aino Seppo) wears simple and covering outfits, while Inka (Heidi Herala) wears flowing hems.
In addition to all the fun and raising a toast, the ladies had time to talk about getting older. Screenwriter Helena Anttonen really knows what she is writing about. He approaches the subject seriously, but not gloomily.
For example, Anita’s (Eija Vilpas) phone calls to her own elderly father with dementia are excellent. She helps to find the underpants that are eventually found on the father’s head.
The funniest thing in the play, however, is the Lapland businessman Oula, played by Sauli Suonpää. He twists the excellent dialect so that his moustache just trembles and eventually falls off with boisterous consequences.
A Bottle of Cava and the Sun is a truly life-like comedy in which everything is possible, from the dropping of a mustache to finding a Portuguese man. The comedy fizzes like delicious sparkling wine and leaves a long-lasting smile on your face.