Review: Pieni merenneito
This is exactly what children’s theatre should be like – Helsinki City Theatre’s The Little Mermaid is an investment in the future of theatre
This is what children’s theatre should be like. Let’s do as much as possible and use all the know-how and resources that a big company has for the production.
The management of the Helsinki City Theatre does not say what the production budget of The Little Mermaid is. Perhaps there is a reason for the mystery. At least one unbeatable justification for the investment can be found in the performance itself. The Little Mermaid is an investment in the future of the entire art form.
I’m sure that the children who saw Thursday’s premiere will remember this experience for the rest of their lives. The first seeds of understanding and insight have been sown in fertile soil.
The glow that will be created around the production will also make the parents of these future theatre makers and theatregoers open the strings of their purses. Tickets are expensive, but there are things in life that you have to experience at least once.
In recent years, the Helsinki City Theatre has been alive. The joy of doing things can be felt all the way to the stands. On Thursday, the premiere of The Little Mermaid was already close to ecstasy. We, who sat in the audience, reacted to each scene with spontaneous applause, and at the end of the performance, even genuine tears of emotion were not far away.
Such a strong interaction between the actors and their audience is somehow unique. It was as if 60 years of life had been shaken off my shoulders, and for a moment I could enjoy the reality of the fairy tale of the play like a child. It felt insanely good.
This performance included a lot of amazing magic tricks as well as a lot of the real magic of the theater.
According to the script, a total of 80 people were involved in the premiere on stage and behind the scenes. All of the theatre’s 240 employees must have contributed to the preparation of the performance. Theatre is art made by the community.
The visually and functionally stunning ensemble is undoubtedly the result of a collaboration between director Samuel Harjanne, conductor Risto Kupiainen, set designer Peter Ahlqvist, choreographer Gunilla Karlsson-Olsson, sound designer Kai Poutanen, lighting designer William Iles and costume designer Pirjo Liiri-Majava .
Personally, I enjoyed the fine Finnish translations of the performance. Reita Lounatvuori and Hanna Kaila have done a brilliant job of translating the script of Dough Wright and the lyrics of Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater into swinging Finnish. Now the cuteness of Disney’s cartoons took on tastefully tangy shades and a hefty verbal humor bloomed alongside the sitcom.
The roles of the villain are also both interesting and rewarding for the actor in the theatre. Sanna Saarijärvi played a great role as the fairy tale sea witch Ursula. I believe that Saarijärvi’s great performance became a great bravura thanks to the brilliant translation work, the character and the language were one.
Sonja Pajunoja sang and acted wonderfully as Ariel in the musical. He also coped elegantly with the acrobatics performed with a wire crane.
There were so many great roles that it’s a bit difficult to pick out names from this large group.
Of course, I would like to write about how wonderfully the scenes were executed. There were no dead spots in the performance.
There are many opinions about Disney’s media empire. However, as a performance, The Little Mermaid at the Helsinki City Theatre emphasizes above all how important internationalisation is for Finnish theatre.
Harjanne, who graduated with a master’s degree in theatre directing from the Guildfort School of Acting, is a living example of this. Studying in England has offered the very talented artist a new channel to realise her own artistic vision.
We have all been able to enjoy the results of it. The list of Harjanne’s directions printed in the programme is impressive. For example, the musical Kinky Boots at the Helsinki City Theatre was a huge review and audience success last year.
The Enchantment of the Little Mermaid was created by means used in circus and puppet theatre. The dolls were designed by Paul Vincett and Beckly Johnson and the amazing flights were designed by James Veitch and Nick Porter. Stitches and Glue Ltd, the company of the first two, represents the excellence of its field on a global scale, and the same can be said of Veitch and Porter’s company Flying by Foy Ltd.
Andersen wrote the fairy tale The Little Mermaid in 1837 as a declaration of love to his close friend Edvard Collin when he got engaged to his girlfriend. According to Harjanne, who wrote the director’s comment on the script, Andersen felt that he was a mermaid who could never be part of his friend’s world because they were different, and a person like Collin could never love a mermaid like Andersen.
Fairy tales describe the basic questions of life, the ones that shape our identity. Andersen’s fairy tales also depicted the reality of their time, a little match girl froze to death on the street and a little mermaid evaporated into the foam of the sea.
Disney’s animated versions of these classic fairy tales end with an American-style happy ending. Lovers get each other.
Death is still an abstraction in our world, at least for most children, and that’s how it should be. Completely different things are on the minds of elementary school-aged kids. Perhaps the most endearing part of the script is where Harjanne tells how she saw Disney’s The Little Mermaid for the first time on video when she was three years old.
Helsinki City Theatre’s The Little Mermaid is not recommended for children under school age. Of course, younger people can also watch and experience it, if they are already familiar with the theatre as a place.
The programme of the performance is definitely worth buying. It is very informative, almost perfect in its kind, just like the presentation itself.