Review: Tatu ja Patu Helsingissä

Theatre review: “Walking Curiosities” Tatu and Patu in the City Lights

Even with a rather thin Tatu and Patu feel (a few books browsed, one previous theatre performance seen, one film seen), I dare say that director Sami Rannila and dramaturg Henna Piirto have brought these films, created by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen and featuring adventures in almost 20 books, to the Helsinki City Theatre looking, sounding and in every way the original spirit of the characters respectfully.

When the costume designer of the performance, Elina Kolehmainen, and Jaana Nykänen, who designed the camouflage, make sure that the characters are as they should be, the always reaction-sensitive audience of children’s theatre has no reason to blurt out that “those are adults” or “they shouldn’t be that colour”. When the basics are in order, Tatu and Pattu have a free field to romp around on stage without restraint.

Helsinki, my Snadin

The music-driven performance of Tatu and Patu in Helsinki is shamelessly and rightly Helsinki-centred at the City Theatre. In the eyes of an adult viewer, it appears even more like a hilarious travel “advertisement” than a plot-driven adventure story.

At the start, the oddball duo from Outola flies to the capital to look for their cousin Jori, get lost, find Jori, lose him, get lost and lose him repeatedly, run after Jori around Stadi (or Snad, as cousin Jori calls his hometown in his rather free-form slang)… However, in such a way that the city’s landmarks are always within sight.

No more plot is needed. There is enough ground in the city. Especially for Tatu and Patu, who are described by their creators as “walking curiosities”, for whom a big, foreign city is just the best.

The stage images created by set designer Markus Tsokkinen and Nuutti Koskinen, who made the projections that tickle adults in particular, show glimpses of familiar statues, buildings with stonemasons at the railway station, the concrete brutalism of the suburbs and, most importantly, trams or sporas, or skurut, or something else in Jori’s slang.

Jori, who the Outola brothers first imagine to be a superhero, “Hypercyber Traffic Man”, is a spora driver, and as a result, the show’s song list also includes such musical numbers as “Kärlekn uratiovagn” and “Ratikkakukien hystyslaulu”.

In addition to the brothers and Jori, there is only one person in the show who gets more space, the busy Siivooja-Mari (Sanna Saarijärvi), who occasionally gets to guide Tatu and Patu back to the map – in other words, on the right track, so to speak, when it comes to cousin Jori.

By the way, the red-haired and back-haired Jori, played by Paavo Kerosuo, is such a juicy character in both his old HKL uniform and the superhero look that comes out of it, that he is about to steal the whole show for a moment.

However, the energy of Antti Timonen (Tatu) and Paavo Kääriäinen (Patu) is enough to keep them the kings of the stage. The fast-paced brothers require a boyish attitude and physique, and the lead actors have plenty of those qualities.

The rest of the wide and colourful range of roles (from the pigeons of Helsinki to the red-green characters in pedestrian lights, from the kindergarten’s vest gang group to members of parliament) is handled by a 14-member ensemble.

The musical side of the play does not leave any deeper traces on the adult viewer as such. The main thing in the songs written by Kari Mäkirinna is to be catchy, not so much to be involved as the drivers of the story. And they are contagious. As I was leaving the theatre, I heard a few kids playing the song “Hypercyber Traffic Man

A place for a long series?

The super-popular Superguys of Outola have been adventuring on stage, at least on the professional theatre side, quite sparingly so far. So far, only the Turku Castle Theatre has been more enthusiastic about performing their adventures (three productions in 2015-2019).

The Helsinki City Theatre starts with the first book in the series, so it could be a series of plays as long as you like. Based on the reception of the first attempt, there would be prerequisites for such a thing