Review: Suomen hauskin mies

The commandant’s harsh order to the Red prisoners: Make a play for the regent – famine is not an obstacle

Review: The Funniest Man in Finland at the Helsinki City Theatre depicts a dark time. However, it is not a completely black spectacle.

The situation couldn’t be much wilder. August 1918, a Red prison camp on the island of Iso-Mjölö off the coast of Helsinki. Among the prisoners are actors from the workers’ theatre. The clothes are rags and shreds. Hunger bothers and bowel movements stop.

Still, you have to make a play, because the commandant with a gun in his hand commands. Regent Svinhufvud, who is coming to visit the island, needs to have fun.

On the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, the play The Funniest Man in Finland, written by Mikko Reitala and Heikki Kujanpää, will be performed. Based on the name, one might think that it is a farce that we are used to seeing at the City Theatre, not a drama about the darkest phase of our independence.

However, the play directed by Kujanpää is not completely black. Even though you can lose your life in a prison camp because of a stolen sausage, the losses you experience unite people and humour is a way to maintain self-respect.

Toivo Parikka, the theatre director and red boss, whom Martti Suosalo interprets in a subtle way, is still joking even when he looks into the barrel of the gun. A great role as Jaeger Lieutenant Alfred Nyborg is played by Heikki Ranta.

Like many of the works of Finland’s 100th anniversary year, this is also a strongly male play. Pekka Korpiniity’s set design is simplistic. The music is by Timo Hietala.

Next spring, the film of the same name, directed by Kujanpää, will premiere.