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Note: No longer in repertoire!
Cast: Heidi Herala, Risto Kaskilahti, Sanna Saarijärvi, Matti Rasila,
Pia Runnakko/Tiina Pirhonen, Eppu Salminen, Sari Siikander
Control: Tiina Puumalainen
Production: Markus Tsokkinen
Costumes: Riitta Anttonen-Palo
Viivi and the Wagner fever risesCompared to the 2002 premiere version of the Turku City Theatre Viivi and Wagner from Helsinki are more entertaining. The Turku performance did not include e.g. dance and music scenes, which in Helsinki central position. Directed by Tiina Puumalainen, Viivi and Wagner stars popular favourites Risto Kaskilahti and Sari Siikander. Kaskilahti is known not only from the theatre but also from And I don’t really need any introductions. Siikander has also become familiar with Finns on many stages, most recently e.g. the Tampere Workers’ Marilyn Monroe in the theatre’s musical Marilyn on the big stage of Työvis.Wagner in Kaskilahti is just like the one in Uuno Turhapuro’s and the Christmas ham blank a kind of crossbreed chauvinist style just like in a comic. On the theatre stage, there is Maybe a little easier (than in a 4-5 square strip) to justify why Viivi, who mostly seems quite smart, is still the even though he farts, slurps, devours food and avoids everything Useful work until the very end. The answer is clear: for love and sex.Siikander manages to pump the same seemingly inexhaustible female energy as so often before. A dash of feminine insecurity mixed in and volatility, the result is almost perfect.The excellent cast of Viivi and Wagner also includes Eppu Salminen, Heidi Herala, Matti Rasila, Sanna Saarijärvi and Pia Runnakko. Brilliant supporting performances – or rather, masterful caricatures – in the performance of the five are conjured up by almost everyone, and it’s actually wrong to point out to others before anyone else, but this time Herala’s and Salminen’s works deserve particularly furious applause.
Read moreA LOT OF NOISE ABOUT THE PIG RELATIONSHIP Not exactly silly, but laughable enough. That’s the most important takeaway of the popular comic strip Viivi and Wagner’s transfer to the stage from Studio Pasila. There is no need to look for anything, that is, at all, deeper meanings in episodic – or rather strip-like – frolicking. And there was clearly no intention to serve such a thing.Viivi and Wagner, created by Juba Tuomola , which has become the most popular Finnish newspaper and album comic strip over the past ten years, probably no longer needs a detailed outline due to its basic setting. In other words, there is a well-informed eco-girl Viivi, who lives together with her boyfriend and opposite Wagner, who happens to be a pig. That is, in terms of the definition of the species. Viivi makes the world a better place and pulls veggie hats, Wagner lies on the couch flapping the remote control and sipping beer. Even though they are different couples, these two also love in their own way, which seems strange to the outside world.Viivi and Wagner first ventured on stage in Turku in the autumn of 2002, and the Helsinki version is mostly based on the same script written by Juba Tuomola herself.
Read moreYOU CAN’T WATCH IT WITHOUT LAUGHING The proposal, whose working group includes a “snout manager”, must be different, at least a little bit piggybacking. And Wagner is. Together with Viivi and the women of previous generations, who have an edge – or whatever you could half-heartedly call it – she makes the Finnish man she represents look less salon-worthy. When you take the father-in-law from the family, Julli and Fylli, and Satan himself from the afterlife, there will be a ride for the audience. The conquest of Juba Tuomola’s comic book characters can be greeted with joy, if only because of the rarity of the phenomenon. This does not happen in Finland with a high frequency of ashes. After all, the vitality of fictional characters created for another purpose does not carry over the ramp as a matter of course. Now it carries me, and what could be nicer.XXXXXUndoubtedly, both Viivi and Wagner are boldly sketched images of today’s people, the prototypes of which many people actually remember from their relatives or acquaintances from the time when their father bought the lamp. As an artist, Tuomola is of course well overdone, and Tiina Puumalainen has enthusiastically grabbed this comedy string that is suitable for theatre and pulled it with a proper grip. A new genre of comedy has emerged, if not a new genre of comedy, at least a subgenre. Wagner’s popularity on stage is probably largely based on the fact that he is perceived as a “good guy” who lives in the depths of even the most shabby couch potato. In exactly the same way, many people burp at home and just as many would like to but don’t dare. Our outhouses are also full of women like Viivi – the backbone of homes is thus particularly flexible, yielding, even if it sometimes makes noise. But as equality progresses, it is no wonder that Wagner’s disease is also lurking around women’s spiked heels…XXXXXThere is joy and play in the production, all the way to the stage design, costumes, music and choreography. It sometimes knocks you out with its audacity, but delights with its element of surprise, skilled acting and humour, which is triggered by a great understanding of the twists and turns of human life and behavioural patterns. Sari Siikander and Risto Kaskilahti pull off the title roles as expressively as they do with suppleness and lightness, but in such a way that the viewer is convinced of the mutual warmth and excitement that underpins the relationship between Viivi and Wagner. A karaoke night in hell – the strangest dreams you can have – are the highlights of the play, but the performance culminates in a visit from relatives. Pia Runnako has a delicious role as a grandmother, and she manages it with full points. Of course, not without the strong and self-indulgent presence of the whole group. The icing on the cake is Heidi Herala’s exhilarating mother-in-law’s detachment. Viivi’s mother is whispering like the best sparring partner. The wig is swinging, the lines are flying like May Day balls, and ouch, what a legjob – no doubt you can stay in the rings like that…
Read moreFamiliar characters jumped from the comic strip screens onto the stage VIIVI AND WAGNER ENCHANT IN THE THEATRE AS WELLTransferring a comic strip to the stage of a theatre is a challenging task. However, when the text of the play is written by the creator of the characters, Juba Tuomola, the end result is quite successful.The stage of Teatteristudio Pasila in Helsinki is divided into three parts by partition walls: the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom, where Viivi (Sari Siikander) and Wagner (Risto Kaskilahti) take turns adventuring. On the other hand, the bottomlessly lazy Wagner mostly enjoys sitting on the pink sofa in the living room. The black-and-white simplicity of the comic strip has probably been sought by staging the rooms in pink throughout.Those who follow the newspapers can read glimpses of humour from the couple’s everyday life. A two-hour theatrical performance, on the other hand, requires a more elaborate plot. Otherwise, there is a risk that the performance will disintegrate into detached sketch pieces that will not be able to entertain the whole evening. Viivi and Wagner’s theatrical performance is framed by a Sunday that Wagner would have liked to spend just lounging on the couch, while Viivi announced that she had already invited her parents to dinner. The theatre performance skilfully combines the couple’s everyday bickering with two more advanced stories. The first of these, in which the devil himself appears at the couple’s door and manages to buy Wagner’s soul for twenty euros, remains unfinished and quite detached from the point of view of the whole. Instead, a successful story set on stage with its many twists and turns is a dinner visit by Viivi’s parents, which eventually also gets Viivi’s grandmother, as well as the haughty Uncle Julli and Aunt Fylli. The multi-threaded family drama is complete when conflicts and previously unheard secrets come to the surface.
Read morePIG LOVES EVEN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO
Read moreGUARANTEED FINNISH WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON QUALITYJuba Tuomola’s Viivi and Wagner is a pig-like comedy about a relationship Of all the miracles of creation, man is probably most concerned about the division into men and women. Some think that natural selection has made men hunters and women gatherers. Others, on the other hand, believe that men are from Mars and women from Venus. Cartoonist Juba Tuomola puts it better. The men are from the pig farm and the women are apparently made in the handicraft workshops of popular education institutions.
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