Note: No longer in repertoire!

PLEASE NOTE! Due to popular demand, performances will continue in March 2020.

“You can take it a little easier now,” they said. A bunch of 31-year-olds whose work takes place somewhere inside a computer. A society where no one knows how to reverse a trailer, and then they tell me I’m no longer needed. Is that reasonable?

Olavi does not understand modern people, who no longer possess any useful skills or know how things ought to be done. He has been forced to retire from his job and ousted as chair of his right-of-occupancy residents’ association. On top of everything, Olavi’s heart has been broken, and he does not know how to carry on alone.

When a new neighbour and his family move into the terraced house opposite and immediately reverse into Olavi’s postbox, knocking it over, it marks the beginning of a funny and heart-warming story about a scruffy cat, an unexpected friendship, love and the importance of proper tools. Reluctantly drawn in to help, Olavi gets to know his new neighbours: the “idiot”, his Iranian-born wife Parvaneh and their two children. Perhaps life still has something in store for Olavi after all.

Mies joka rakasti järjestystä is a drama comedy infused with warm-hearted humour. Grumpy, but utterly irresistible.

“There’s a shortage of work, so we’re letting some of our older staff go.” More than thirty years in the same job, and suddenly you’re bloody “older staff”. Because now everyone is 31, their trousers are too tight and they’ve stopped drinking ordinary coffee. Everywhere you look, there are hordes of men with sculpted beards who change jobs, wives and makes of car. Just like that. “It must be lovely to be able to take things a little easier?” So you can oil the kitchen worktop. You shouldn’t have time for that sort of thing on a Tuesday.

The film based on the novel of the same name premiered in Sweden and won over Finnish audiences the following year. Now the stage adaptation comes to Helsinki City Theatre as a co-production with Turku City Theatre.

 

“Taneli Mäkelä’s charisma shines in this solo performance, and his portrayal of Sweden’s resident grumpy old man is wistfully radiant. Taneli Mäkelä has enough charisma to fill a stage even larger than the City Theatre’s Arena Stage.” Helsingin Sanomat 4.10.2019 – Laura Kytölä