Review: Pieni merenneito

The much-hyped The Little Mermaid is already worthy of its reputation

Helsinki City Theatre does its best

THEATRE REVIEW. The Helsinki City Theatre’s The Little Mermaid is the largest musical production ever seen in Finland. The stage turns into the sea as if playfully, the music is grandiose and grandiose, the singers hit every note, the dancing mermaids float in their movements like fish in the water with their huge tails, and Ariel swims above the stage with aerial acrobatics with incredible beauty. Everything is crowned by skilful puppet theatre and impressive special effects and video projections.

In the story, based on H. C. Andersen’s fairy tale and the Disney film, the 16-year-old mermaid princess Ariel longs for the human world and falls in love with the human prince. Her father, King Triton, hates people because he believes they are responsible for the death of their spouse. Ariel defies her father, changes her voice to a pair of legs with the help of her aunt Ursula, who has been exiled from the kingdom, and begins to yearn for Prince Erik’s heart. Ariel struggles on three levels: between the different worlds of mermaids and humans, in her relationship with her father, and in love with the prince of her dreams.

When the play began, my 5-year-old assistant critic had to make sure twice whether there was really water in it or not. Thus an authentic fairytale world under the surface had been created on the stage. Time and time again, the rotating multi-level stage brought more incredible sets and characters to amaze the audience. In the theatre, really everything is possible!

To my own eyes, the most spectacular scene was Erik’s fall from the ship, which disintegrated on the stage in the blink of an eye while Erik began to fall towards the bottom of the sea. However, Ariel manages to save her and soon the viewers will be gasping for breath as Ariel swims towards the surface of the sea on the ceiling with the prince under her arm.

There were clearly more adults than children in the audience, which in itself was a shame, as this musical is one of the top performers of Finnish children’s theatre. For a 5-year-old, Ursula was already a bit too scary, but for school-age children, the play is certainly at its best. The second target group is, of course, the people who fell in love with Ariel in their own childhood. We now seem to have children of just the right age, with whom we can get excited about the heroes of our own childhood again.

The popularity of the 1989 film version was largely based on Alan Menken’s composition. The film won both the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Film Song, as well as the Golden Globes. In addition to movie hits, he has composed a dozen new songs for the musical adaptation, which sink into the whole like a knife into butter. All the songs have been retranslated into Finnish – even better than in the film. With the new Finnish translations, you will immerse yourself in the audience and listen to the story in particular detail. Did Ursula sing in the movie about how she put all her sisters out of the days one by one? At least I don’t remember that it was, but in the musical I heard that story as well.

All the singers in the musical are phenomenal. Sanna Saarijärvi is as at home as an actress can be in the role of Ursula. In my case, Ariel was played by the alternate actress Sarah Nedergård, who managed to resemble a 16-year-old with her facial expressions surprisingly well. Singing also carried and gave me goosebumps. Martti Manninen redeemed his place as the prince of his dreams as soon as he got to sing his first solo.

Alek Perez Lahtinen was funny and fed Splash in his role. I would have liked to have seen more children and young people on stage. The splash was the only fish played by humans. Other fish and shellfish were produced by means of puppet theatre. King Triton’s butler Sebatian’s puppeteer Tero Koponen succeeded excellently in his work. Even though she herself was in a spectacular outfit and makeup, she managed to draw attention to her doll all the time. Paavo Kääriäinen and Antti Timonen, who moved Ursula’s eels Kiero and Liero, also succeeded frighteningly well in their slithering.

Hats off to the director of the play, Samuel Harjanne, for a successful whole, but the biggest thanks go to Peter Ahlqvist, who was responsible for the set design, and the rest of the set design and stage technology, whose phenomenal work brought the fairy tale to life.