Review: Paahtimo
HELSINKI CITY THEATRE’S ROASTERY: WANDERING ON THE PRAIRIE OF MODERN WORKING LIFE
On a recent trip to the Book Fair, I was also able to visit the Helsinki City Theatre for the first time in a long time, and not just any stage, but Studio Pasila, which was a completely new acquaintance for me. I had chosen the play I assumed to be a suitably light and easily digestible work for the fair weekend’s show, because after a full fair day and an overdose of stimuli, it’s useless to try to focus on anything too demanding.
At the presentation of the roastery, the presentation was even promised to have an uplifting effect, so what could be more appropriate!
Written by Mikko Reitala and directed by Sini Pesonen , the working life comedy is set not only in today’s working life, but also in the world of coffee, which is so dear to us Finns. As the name suggests, the story involves working at a small coffee roastery. It’s hard to imagine a trendier milieu that reflects the present day (with the possible exception of microbreweries).
Sanna-June Hyde and Vappu Nalbantoglu play siblings who are like night and day. Anni (Nalbantoglu) has plenty of degrees and grades, but her fear of social situations causes her to freeze in job interviews. Olivia (Hyde), on the other hand, is charismatic, but the woman who often seeks out problems lacks professional ambition. When Olivia is psyching her sister for a job interview, she accidentally snatches her sister’s dream job right in front of her!
But there is no need to worry about this, because doesn’t the ideal employee have Anni’s skills, but Olivia’s looks and social talent? What if together they become the Anni who works for Kofi and charms everyone with both her skills and charisma? Can one person have all the necessary qualities at all?
On stage, we see a tight cast of actors who take over the entire stage and make the ensemble seem larger than its size. Above all, the characters make you squint and sink under the bench in compassion at the same time. I claim to have met quite a few sales manager Jessi (Jarkko Niemi) and Christina financial managers (Leena Rapola) during my career. At times, the characters felt so familiar that I strongly suspect that the actors had sneaked into the companies’ coffee rooms to do corporate espionage.
A little, but only slightly, less familiar seemed Kofi’s CEO Pepe (Pertsa Koivula), who is recognizable by the creaking of cowboy boots and Ennio Morricone’s ringtone. In reality, the roastery seems to be mainly worked by Samuli, who is played by Jasir Osman so captivatingly that his overzealousness about roasting coffee seems quite real.
The characters each reflect today’s working life and its completely changed nature in a delicious way. While Samuli and Olivia represent socially competent working life nomads who are well adapted to today’s requirements, Pepe and Christina are already riding towards the sunset. Of the characters, Jesse and Anni are somewhere in between. Jesse is jogging behind the others in his lycra pants, but his skills may not be quite enough. Anni, on the other hand, has never even been able to jump on board.
The performance challenges the viewer to ponder: is it enough to know how to brand yourself correctly? Do we still need the right skills?
(I would argue that it is needed.)
Although the play’s observations are insightful and the thorns are sometimes quite sharp, the general tone of the performance is nevertheless benevolent. I really liked the text. The characters talk a lot, the intelligent dialogue sprawls and challenges, but it holds together well and moves the story forward all the time.
Although the tension of the story arises, as is typical of a farce, from a secret that must not be revealed (but of course it is), there was not too much stopwatch-timed slamming of doors, but there was also room for comedy to live and breathe in interaction with the audience.
Indeed, a refreshing effect!