Review: Täydellinen lauantai

Strang is the star of Perfect Saturday

Who wouldn’t want to relax at home after a long week and listen to a long-awaited LP rarity? Just take a moment for yourself. Middle-aged Markus (Pekka Strang) also tries to do so, but there are a couple of variables in the situation: his wife Helena (Vuokko Hovatta) wants to reveal her secrets to him, a son in his twenties (Arttu Kapulainen) is coming to visit, an Estonian workman (Jouko Klemettilä) has problems with a renovation, his lover Elisa (Vappu Nalbantoglu) wants to tell his wife about their relationship, and downstairs neighbour Pavel (Matti Rasila) would like to socialize.

The comedy was written by Frenchman Florian Zeller in 2013 and is inspired by Simon Grey’s play Otherwise Engaged, which premiered in 1975. The director of the City Theatre’s production is the lovely Jaakko Saariluoma, who is also known from Putous. I like Antti Mattila’s set design very much and I think I told my friend that I could live in such an apartment myself. The costumes were designed by Maria Rosenqvist, who has also been able to express the personalities of the characters in their costumes.

Perfect Saturday manages to reach viewers with relatable and recognizable characters. I can find a lot of familiar elements in the characters myself, especially of course the main character Markus, who will really do anything to be left alone for a while. And even if you try to help or please the other person, even that is not enough. Of course, not forgetting the parents’ weekly phone call to see who did what to whom.

The casting was brilliant: the suffering Hovatta, the suddenly turning into a moral guardian, the teenage angst Kapulainen, the struggling Klemettilä struggling with the language barrier and the overzealous Rasila downstairs. Most of all, however, I enjoyed Pekka Strang’s slightly over-the-top acting. The lines were apt, but Strang’s way of acting them made the situation even more comical and funny. Often I laughed even more at Strang than at the situation comedy or dialogue itself. My friend told me that he was most looking forward to the plumber returning to the stage. Admittedly, Klemettilä’s workman was one of my favorite characters as well.

Perhaps there was a bit of idleness at the beginning of the performance, which slowed down the start of the plot, but otherwise the plot progressed closely and rhythmically until the end. A perfect Saturday lasted about two hours with the intermission, so it was just the right boost for those who need it. I can warmly recommend this, the performance was just so intense that I lost track of time and my stomach hurt from laughing.