Review: Älä pukeudu päivälliselle

At the theatre: Don’t dress up for dinner

Yes, an exhausted person’s Friday night can turn into a joyful celebration full of life in an instant. After Thursday’s snowfall, I was thoroughly bored with the whole winter and darkness. Spring is coming. Friday’s working day was spent thinking about how I would make it to Helsinki in the evening and how I would be able to concentrate on the evening’s premiere Don’t dress up for dinner on the Arena stage of the Helsinki City Theatre. I made it to the theatre well, and the performance really kept the human child awake. Absolutely impossible. I couldn’t help but laugh.

So what is it all about? Matti (Pertti Sveholm) is pushing his wife Linda (Jonna Järnefelt) to her mother’s house for the weekend because he has invited his mistress Janita (Sanna-June Hyde) to the couple’s summer residence. Matti’s friend Harri (Pekka Strang) is also coming to the cottage. Upon hearing this, Linda cancels her departure because she is having an affair with Harri. You can’t miss an opportunity like this. This is going to be a real mess, which will be stirred up by another Janita (Katja Küttner), a catering chef. When such ingredients are put together, there is a lot of fuss, cover-up, uncertainty and chaos.

Now there were such laughers on stage that there were no limits. All the facial expressions and gestures and throwing yourself into it. First of all, Mrs Küttner, thank you. You are an unbelievably brilliant and skilled actor. How on earth can an actor bend to so many? I’m still starting to laugh at the number one fashion drink in Helsinki’s social circles and nightclubs. And Pertti Sveholm, a man who makes me laugh anyway, but it does bring extra fun when a man makes such a mess. Pekka Strang, on the other hand, has been a great choice for the role of Harri. A man who doesn’t want to get involved in Matti’s intrigues, but suddenly finds himself at the heart of the networks of relationships. This is made even more amusing when Strang tries to find out all the relationships with the other people at the summer residence. Jonna Järnefelt in the role of the wife tries to bring a slightly more serious side to the stage, and succeeds, but despite this, the audience gets to laugh with tears in their eyes. To top it all off, the adorably beautiful Sanna-June Hyde, who was supposed to spend her birthday with her beloved, finds herself in a completely different role. Crazy and hilarious!

Don’t dress up for dinner is a farce that kept me laughing from start to finish. A real mess with relationship twists and turns. At times, the contact with the audience was just shouting, because there was nothing else to do. However, the play was alive all the time, and at no point did it stagnate. I also liked how the set design had apparently made use of the old, or at least that’s what I assume. The Hitman’s Nightmare had a very similar set design. Doors and rooms that ensure that the characters in the play leave one of the doors at a suitable point so that the new scene can continue.

Don’t Dress for Dinner (Pyjama pour six) is a popular play written by Marc Camoletti, which has been performed on many stages in Finland and also under a couple of other names. The Helsinki City Theatre’s version has been directed by Jarkko Saariluoma and he has done a good job. The play is well finished already at the premiere, and the viewer does not have to worry about the actors. I already mentioned the set design. It was written by Alisha Davidow. If the staging of another play has really been used here with small changes, I have to say that it’s great recycling. However, if this has not happened, the set design is in any case functional and suitable for a farce.

This is a farce that is perfect for groups of work or friends or just for yourself. The play takes away everyday thoughts and for once you are allowed to laugh loudly. Plays like this are needed, because life doesn’t always have to be serious.