Review: Veljeni Leijonamieli

Hero’s Reward

My second-grade audience friend was completely fired up by what he saw and gave the play a hundred billion stars out of five. I ended up with about four, so very good. Even with its minor shortcomings – was a choir of narrators necessary, perhaps a few songs too many? – My brother Lionheart left a smile on his face and mascara on his cheeks.

The play of the extra star was still made from a conversation on the way home, where we thought together with the boy what were the funniest, most exciting and saddest parts of the top-3. (Beware of plot reveals!)

The saddest thing for the boy was the ending, where Joonatan (Mikko Kauppila) heroically defeats a dragon and then becomes paralyzed as a reward. How unfair! Life is, I thought, but not out loud.

I, on the other hand, swallowed the most in the beginning, where Joonatan comforts the sick little Raven (Alexander Wendelin), who is afraid of death, and tells about the lovely Nangijala, where he will soon arrive. Now, as an adult, even as a mother of teenagers, I only realized how brave and still small that big brother is, who knows how to swallow his tears in the face of his little brother’s distress and make up a story on the fly that could just as well be true.