Review: Mörköooppera

The Groke Opera, which has been excellently updated to modern times

There are probably not many people in their thirties and younger and their parents who do not know at least some of Marjatta Pokela’s children’s songs. So many of them have been played and sung in kindergartens and schools in our country.

The song Groke se lähti piiriin (The Groke It Left the Circle) certainly evokes a lot of memories in many people’s minds, but fewer people may know that it is one of the songs on Pokela’s 1980 album Groke Opera and part of a fairy tale written and composed for children, which was first staged in Finnish theatres in the 1980s.

Now the Helsinki City Theatre has taken up this children’s classic and updated it to the world of modern children. Of course, the lyrics of the songs reflect the educational nature of their time, and the milieu of the story and society have also changed, but the trio of authors, director Kimmo Virtanen, composer Lauri Schreck and choreographer Jyrki Karttunen, smoothly pass these small pitfalls.

The result is a playfully carnivalesque fairy tale where all kinds of things happen and happen. Living in the forest of the fairytale world of the cottage, the Groke wants to get to know the world of people and ends up in Helsinki. There, he quickly realizes that the adult world is not at all comfortable for children (and fairy tale creatures). Different people are watched for a long time and it is difficult to make friends, so the Groke finally decides to return to fairytale land.

There are two things in the performance above all, without which The Groke Opera would not be as charming as it is now. The first is Groke, interpreted by Sanna Majuri. The Groke is an adorable little troll character who has both the defiant courage and joyful recklessness of a small child and the sensitivity and vulnerability that invites comfort and help. In addition, Majuri is also an excellent singer.

One of the most delicious scenes of the performance is the rock concert version of the song Groke it went to the circle, interpreted by Majuri, and the audience was also eager to join in.

The music is the other factor that makes the performance a proper mini-musical. Schreck’s extremely versatile arrangements include a wide range of contemporary styles, from machine pop to rap, and the songs do not let the performers or listeners off the hook. Still, Pokela’s original compositions are completely recognizable.

Schreck himself is an entire orchestra, the Music Worm, which swings like a disease in his Giant Apple, which contains many instruments.

Visually, the performance is funny and full of funny caricatures. I was very pleased that the set and costume designer Alisha Davidow had not used the retro of the 70s, which is so much in vogue today, as the starting point for her ideas, although there are of course references to the time when the work was created. Now we’re a little bit deliberately over-colorful, but not overly sweet or “childlike”.

Karttunen’s choreography blends nicely into the whole. It does not emerge as an intrinsic value, which is not the intention either, but is included as an essential part of the events and the narrative. The story flows and the characters appear in the movements.

The Groke Opera is a great performance for everyone over the age of 4, regardless of whether they have ever heard any of Marjatta Pokela’s numerous children’s songs before. And for those who know them, the show is a good reminder that a classic remains a classic when you know how to update it properly.