Review: Turvamies

A celebration of two actors

Would I be completely wrong in predicting that a successful play will be seen on the Arena stage of the Helsinki City Theatre this autumn? The play is The Security Man, written and directed by Pasi Lampela, in which Lampela is revealed to be a full-blooded master of the commedia dell’arten genre!

The performance, which lasts less than two hours, is such verbal that it requires these two talented actors – Katja Küttner and Martti Suosalo.

The plot of the story is simple in itself. Antti Granqvist, the raucous son of a wealthy industrial family, unexpectedly gets a security guard named Mirka Ahonen, who has made a career from humble home circumstances, at his doorstep. The sixty-year-old Granqvist has been hired for a lot of money by his father, who has received serious kidnapping threats against his son. Of course, he is not going to agree to the security guard’s demands to stay at home.

Martti Suosalo’s funny skills are known and acknowledged, but Katja Küttner turns out to be a brilliant comedian. His security-like body language, down to his posture and the shaking of his legs, is enjoyable to watch. Also, of course, how two actors keep the audience’s interest up every moment.

One of the highlights of the performance is how Suosalo throws a few clips from the musicals Singing Raindrops and Cabaret, among others.

Sirpa Suutari-Jääskö and Jukka Haapalainen, who choreographed the play, have their own merits. They make the actors bend into all kinds of positions and into such a flexible partner dance that the viewer is breathless.

This is the kind of rejoicing we need this autumn. And the story also has a more serious undertone. How far can the restriction of individual freedom be stretched, and what is ultimately more important than another person and human contacts?