My Brother Lionheart – When Love Conquers Death
This autumn’s premiere for the whole family at the Helsinki City Theatre is Astrid Lindgren’s classic fairy tale My Brother the Lionheart, in completely new clothes and soundscapes. Director Jakob Höglund returns to his roots as the creator of children’s theatre.
“I love making theatre for children and families! It’s been a while since I last got to do a play for the whole family on a big stage. Many people don’t know that my theatre career started with fairy tales. The Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Hansel and Gretel, Pinocchio and many other children’s classics became familiar.”
HKT’s star director and artistic director of Lilla Teatern, Jakob Höglund , who has gone from one success to another in recent years, returns with enthusiasm when he talks about his upcoming masterpiece on the main stage of the City Theatre.
“Astrid Lindgren’s fairy tales and films made an indelible impression on me as a child. Especially my brother Lionheart. It’s a timeless and incredibly touching story, full of excitement, love, sadness and happiness,” Höglund says.
The adventure of Korpu (Alexander Wendelin) and Joonatan (Mikko Kauppila) gives rise to endless interpretations. The brothers’ heroic journey from everyday Helsinki to the magical worlds of Nangijala and Nanglima raises questions about reality and dreams, love and death. There are numerous levels and some of the themes of the play are tough, both for children and adults. However, Lindgren’s embracing, familiar and safe expression under Höglund’s warm and playful direction make the play suitable for elementary school children.
Brand new music
Expect “classic Jakob Höglund”, i.e. plenty of music, energy and choreography. The text of the play is based on traditional dramatization, which Rasmus Arikka has worked for modern Finland and adapted into a musical form. The play features brand new compositions by Swedish composer Stefan Johansson. The composer says that My Brother Lionheart is also her own favourite work in Astrid Lindgren’s production.
“My mother read it to me over and over again. I remember the feeling of bottomless excitement and, above all, the boundless love between Joonatan and Korpu,” Johansson says.
“I always imagined that the story was true – that the boys really did travel between worlds, and that’s how I decided to approach it now. It is a great honour for me to be able to pass on the story to new generations,” says Johansson, who has just become a father himself.
“The compositions are modern and the sound is electronic, which brings lightness and playfulness to the performance, and at the same time gives you the opportunity to dive into the darkness. Together with Senni Valtonen’s live performance, the songs emphasize the characters’ personalities and relationships with each other, as well as create an atmosphere and move the drama forward.”
Multi-musician Senni Valtonen will play about twenty different instruments in the performance.
From the skate park to the mountain scenery
My Brother the Lion’s Heart also brings director Höglund and his long-time trusted costume designer Heidi Wikari back together. The couple worked together for years on numerous productions, until the theatre closure during the coronavirus pandemic took the artists to different careers. Now the cooperation has the same enthusiasm and vision again.
Like the music, Wikari’s costumes are a cross between modern and traditional aesthetics, where skate guards, hoodies and sneakers meet medieval knightly clothing.
“It’s exciting to be able to reshape such a well-known story. We wanted to bring the play to the present day and to today’s young people. Many people have ready-made images of the illustrations and films in Lindgren’s storybooks, which are nice to shake up a bit,” Wikar says.
Vilma Mattila’s rugged, rotating set design works both as an urban skate park and as a fairytale mountain landscape, and perspectives are also varied through dolls of different sizes designed by Heini Maaranen : soldiers, wolves, hares, horses, pigeons and many other details of Nangijala are brought to life with dolls. Maaranen’s memories of Astrid Lindgren’s brotherly story are particularly strong and personal.
“My relationship with my brother Lionmind was born as a child in a hospital, where I spent long periods of time without being allowed to move. I also have an older brother, whom I admired a lot even then. So it’s understandable that I identified with the story of Korpus and Joonatan,” Maaranen says. “At that time, there was time to imagine. Everyday objects were allowed to represent characters from stories, and with the power of the story, I was able to detach myself from the hospital bed in an instant. This was also the case when I first read My Brother’s Lionheart.”
The magic of playing together
“I never felt the need to believe in Nangijala, but instead in a shared adventure. Puppet theatre provides an opportunity to imagine together, play and talk about difficult topics safely. We know that a puppet is not alive, but when we experience puppetry, we believe in it together for a moment.”
“How to tell about death? Or produce the terrible Katla alive on stage? How to make the puppet soldiers both threatening and so functional that the actor can fight with them credibly – but still in a way that the child can sleep at night without fear,” Maaranen ponders.
In the work, the boundaries between set design, costumes, props, people and puppets blur, scales vary and geometric shapes come alive. The twilight landscape of fairy tales and reality is enhanced by lights and projections, which are the result of a seamless collaboration between video designer Toni Haaranen and lighting designer Wiliam Iles .
It will be a great theatre experience that will touch and captivate the whole family.
Text Janne Strang