Review: Tatu ja Patu Helsingissä

Tatu and Patu in Helsinki, finally also at the Helsinki City Theatre

This is the beginning of the theatre autumn! My hunger for culture, which has been pent up for a year, is enormous, so I was very happy to be invited to the premiere of the musical play Tatu and Patu in Helsinki at the Helsinki City Theatre. Especially since the premiere had already been postponed twice.

The visit to the theatre was also meaningful in that I took my 5-year-old son as a companion, for whom this was the first visit to the theatre ever! It does feel strange, but the last 1.5 years have been strange anyway.

Tatu and Patu in Helsinki is based on the book of the same name by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen , in which the strange brothers arrive in the capital to meet their cousin Jori.

The authors have made the stage adaptation together with director Sami Rannila , so the end result is pure Tatu and Patu, even if the story does not quite follow the original work in its details.

Cousin Jori works as a tram driver for HKL and always has time to sneak away when Tatu and Patu catch a glimpse of him. Tatu and Patu have time to look at the city and its sights while running after their cousin. The brothers have many things to wonder about in Helsinki, and they also misunderstand many things.

Are prams lost on the tracks the famous tram? And can you cross a pedestrian crossing only if you are dressed in green clothes? And what is this HKL, what is on Jori’s chest? Hyper Kyper Trafficman?

The main roles are played by Antti Timonen as Tatu and Paavo Kääriäinen as Patu. Behind the orange moustache of his cousin Jori is Paavo Kerosuo, and the fourth main role is played by Sanna Saarijärvi, whose cleaning character, Mari, Tatu and Patu bump into every now and then while walking around the city.

While the original picture book presents all the most important sights of the inner city, Helsinki is more abstract in the play. Helsinki will be brought to the stage largely through video projections, but there will also be an inflatable tram and almost familiar-looking statues on stage: Marshal Jori, the three Joris and Havis Jori.

The funny incidents and misunderstandings entertained the 5-year-old well, but there was a lot to smile about in the dialogue, song lyrics and set design for the adult audience as well. Kari Mäkiranta’s music was rhythmically and musically versatile.

When I asked the 5-year-old for his opinion after the performance, he said that he liked the performance. It was “strange” too, but that’s how a strange play should be. I asked him if he would ever go to the theatre with me again, and I got the answer: “Yes”, so I will get a theatre buddy in him too.

I can highly recommend Tatu and Patu to kindergarten children and a little older, the length of the performance was also a suitable couple of hours with intermissions.

But now we should probably believe that the theaters are really open permanently, so it would be time to get tickets for other premieres and novelties in the autumn!