Review: Palkkamurhaajan painajainen

The Assassin’s Nightmare @ Helsinki City Theatre

On 6 September, The Assassin’s Nightmare premiered on the Arena stage, which I watched on 29 September.

Assassin Ralph (Santeri Kinnunen) stays in a hotel room, from the window of which he aims at an important witness who will be brought to the courthouse at any moment. Frank (Iikka Forss), a suicidal photographer, settles in the next room, which is a little more trouble for Ralph. Along with him are a hotel servant (Antti Peltola), Frank’s wife Laura (Sanna Saarijärvi) and her new love Edgar (Jouko Klementtilä), as well as a police officer (Sauli Suonpää).

The fast-paced action is on stage all the time and the audience has a great time. This has been done carefully and the humor works. The actors are brilliant, the facial expressions, gestures and other things on stage are deliberate, and the characters and scenes are made the most of them. Santeri Kinnunen and Iikka Forss are very excellent, both make their characters believable and it’s fun to watch them work on stage. Special points for Ralph’s laid-back movements! In addition to the duo, the other actors also do a skilful job. The whole group knows how to do just the right things to make the audience laugh and enjoy.

Peter Ahlqvist’s set design is stylish and works well, the two rooms stand out clearly, but you move smoothly between them and they are both a little different. However, the uniform style is still present in both rooms, as is usually the case in hotels. The hotel atmosphere is conveyed smoothly and the stage looks great. The stage is used well, you move naturally and across, and especially the steps taken at the same time and the things done as a “mirror image” or in the same way at the same time in both rooms were nicely executed.

As a whole, it’s really funny, not too serious or serious, but just the right amount of laughter served by skilled actors.