Review: Tahvo ja Bella
On the lighthouse island
Anything can happen during the winter holidays. One of the nicest events of the week was the morning moment at the Helsinki City Theatre. I got to see Tahvo and Bella’s first morning. Yes, a person over fifty can go and see a play with a recommended age limit of three and up. I recommend it to others. Life is about throwing yourself into it, and sometimes it’s good to be childlike. Tahvo and Bella are familiar animal characters from Tapani Bagge’s popular children’s books.
Bella (Raili Raitala) and Selma (Tiina Peltonen) live on Lighthouse Island. Selma is the lighthouse keeper and Bella is her dog. Breed Mexican hairless dog, if anyone is interested. During the day, Selma goes fishing to get soup ingredients for Bella and herself. On an ordinary day, Bella hears voices from the beach. A coulter boat with a live cat on board drifts ashore. Wow, an abomination! There is a bit of mutual fear in the air, even though the introductions are exchanged. The cat is Tahvo (Mikko Vihma). Bella is not terribly fond of Tahvo. She wants to get rid of the cat before Selma sees the newcomer. Bella’s wish does not come true, because Selma has time to spot Tahvo, who immediately finds a place in her heart. Bella is jealous, but powerless in front of her mistress. However, life on the lighthouse island must continue, and when more starts to happen on the lighthouse island, Tahvonen will be of surprising use.
Raili Raitala is the lovely Bella. Just the kind that would be nice to scratch, although there is also character when it comes to Selma and their lighthouse island. Mikko Vihma, who likes to wear Tahvo’s thick-striped suit, is exactly the kind of cat who purrs when things are as they should be. Not for that, Tahvo didn’t show his claws, even though life had thrown a little around the poor cat on the outskirts of the world. I have to admit that the coulter boat decorated with yellow rubber ducks was super fun. Tiina Peltonen has multiple roles in the play. You have to be in a hurry when you have to switch from one role to another in an instant. I was fascinated by all the roles, but the children were clearly most fond of the chorus of villains, which Lehtinen pulled from the other side of the set wall in a puppet-like manner.
On the first morning of Tahvo and Bella, the little ones of the kindergarten group were watching the performance. Now I have to give thanks. I don’t know how the nurses had instructed the children, but the children behaved very calmly and exemplary, even though I think it would be a bit of a mess in this kind of situation. Especially in the early part of the play, the actors made contact with the children. The children were able to participate in the music and later also in singing. In performances aimed at children, music is often of great importance, and this kind of participatory performance usually always works.
If someone now asks what on earth the performance gives to an adult person, I can give you a few answers. Firstly, the performance will give adults something to think about about the state of the seas. The play has a clear statement about how frightening the seas are in. Plastic pollution can be found and found and found. Everyone can think about this hot potato: climate change. There is much more to the play’s offerings. Parents who bring their children to the theatre teach their children the importance of culture from an early age. At the same time, you can watch how the child empathizes with the play. Even though I was in the theatre without a child companion, I enjoyed the children’s full-fledged immersion in the play. Tahvo and Bella is also a good reminder to us adults of how a lot of good can be created by working together.
In a play aimed at children, a large part of the play is also played by the play’s sets, lighting, sounds, costumes and camouflage. In my opinion, we had succeeded brilliantly in all these areas. Perhaps the most incredible thing was the approach of a garbage ship to the lighthouse island. I have to say that we had a lot of elements in the small space that also worked. Great work from the whole team.
Tahvo’s and Bella’s performances take place in the mornings. Shift workers, in particular, should take advantage of weekday mornings and take their children to the theatre. The performance, which lasts just over half an hour, guarantees an experiential moment in the middle of everyday life. There are also performances on Saturdays, although the weekend performances in the spring are already quite sold out. But don’t worry. The performances will also continue in the autumn. By the way, this is also a good tip for daycare centres, if only the financial means allow them to encounter culture.