Review: Suomen hauskin mies

Laughter prolongs life – even in a Red prison camp
Kujanpää and Reitala’s “The Funniest Man in Finland” is a joyfully harrowing comedy

Laughter may not remove the cause of the disease, but it can relieve pain – unless it’s broken ribs. In the proverb, or folklore, it is even claimed that laughter prolongs life.
Toivo Parikka, the director of the Helsinki Workers’ Theatre, who has been hailed as Finland’s funniest man in newspaper reviews, knows the power of laughter. He also masters the whole arsenal of sources of laughter: everyday banter, crazy comedy, cutting irony, soothing jokes.
That is exactly what the drama comedy “The Funniest Man in Finland”, written by Mikko Reitala and Heikki Kujanpää, is about. About enduring pain and prolonging life through laughter.
The same story can be realised in two forms in a short time: the stage version premiered at the end of last week and a film on the subject will be released in cinemas in the spring.
Director Heikki Kujanpää coped well with his previous double production. The play “Falling Angels”, directed by him for the Q Theatre and about the coexistence of Lauri Viita and Aila Meriluoto, was great theatre and the film based on the same text by Heikki Huttu-Hiltunen was at least of an upper average level.

Parikka and his brother?

The opening of a new double bodes well. As a play, The Funniest Man in Finland takes over the extremes of drama in an impressive way. In the small section of the City Theatre, you can see comedy from slapstick to satire, as well as harrowing tragedy and hatred, in the same package. And even with the theatrical aesthetics of two eras, elevated in an old-fashioned way and grinning distantly at that pathetic stylization.
The funniest man in Finland is not based on real events, but it has a twisted basis in reality. In the Red prison camps, in the midst of all the misery, theatre activities were also born, from which strength was drawn from to endure inhumane conditions.
Toivo Parikka is an imaginary theatre director – perhaps the fictional brother of Jalmari Parikka, a real-life theatre man who worked as a Red Chief and a Molière virtuoso. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Toivo and other actors from the Helsinki Workers’ Theatre end up in a prison camp on the island of Iso-Mjölö off the coast of Helsinki (today’s Isosaari, which has recently been freed up for the use of citizens).
In a summary trial, Parikka receives a so-called “button sentence” from the camp’s cruel commandant. The formal reason is the suspected murder of a priest, the fact that Kalm cannot stand the slick-tongued commander who, without any respect, makes fun of the white victors as much as she can. And he goes wild, damn, with his fellow actor at the same time.
However, Kalm promises to spare the actors and perhaps Parikka, if they prepare a play, which puts the guest in a good mood when he arrives on the island. This visitor is the Regent Ukko-Pekka Svinhufvud himself. As a fanatical monarchist, Kalmi also has a desire to lobby for the idea of a king for Ukko-Pekka and perhaps make a position for himself in the future court.

An amusement show at the hanging site

Kujanpää’s direction allows tragic and comic elements to slip between each other in a mischievous but deliberate manner. A ragged, much-suffered prisoner who is preparing a completely irrational amusement play written by his leader is, of course, terribly funny as the starting point of the story. However, the execution scene of the fun play itself is not as functional as everything else that has been set up around it.
This comedy has exceptionally deep plots and characters compared to the basic imagery of the genre. Behind his cheerful façade, Parikka himself is a firm and fair-minded man. His opponent, Captain Kalm, is the opposite character: straight and firm in his uniform, but comically pompous in all his thirst for power.
Other well-written and performed roles include, for example, Vappu Nalbantoglu’s Mrs. Kalm, whose hatred towards the Reds dilutes towards humanity as the story progresses, and the actor Hannula, played by Pekka Huotari, who at first seems completely crazy, and who hatches into the most communal guy when the time comes.
Martti Suosalo builds the character of Toivo Parikka with care and heart. An actor performing the actor’s mannered body language and expression is a precise place where introspection may have been a tool. Parikka has a good dose of the commanding lady Suosalo, but also a man of ideas who credibly makes theatre out of the fire of the spirit.
Suosalo also plays the main role of Parikka in the film. It will be interesting to see how different the way of presentation is when the medium changes.
Kalmi’s role is as if made for Rauno Ahonen, who has also been able to turn bullying and cruelty into comedy in many of his previous roles. With such a contradiction, the zealous and self-sufficient Kalm is the most suitable field of work for feasting.

The funniest point of view of the 100 years?

The funniest man in Finland keeps the cheerful promise of his name, but it is not worth going to see it with one eye and one ear. It is far too rich in content to be taken as just a ridiculous comedy. It tells about the willpower of handsomely oppressed individuals, the various tricks of the power game and a little bit about the political reality of a hundred years ago, from which laughter was quite far away.
It is great that in the autumn of 2017, when the Finland 100 theme is coming into everyone’s lap, the darkest phase of an independent state is being examined in this light. Kujanpää and Reitala’s play gives permission to laugh through the emotion and rage that is quite a lot tuned up in this day and age.