Review: Pieni merenneito
The Little Mermaid – HKT Visuals, speed and comedy skilfully
The Little Mermaid is guaranteed to be the main attraction of the Helsinki City Theatre. The production has been expensive and the result is a dazzlingly spectacular spectacle. Thanks to modern technology, the whole is so genuinely set in the sea that it is easy for the viewer to experience the underwater nature of the events. There are many seemingly impossible tricks offered to the small and slightly older viewers. How on earth does Ariel swim from the bottom of the sea up towards the ceiling of the stage and in the next moment she is down on a rock, the surface of the sea on the floor of the stage? And how realistically the three-dimensional jellyfish flocks rise towards the surface.
William Iles’ lighting design together with Toni Haaranen’s video design makes this miracle a reality in the enchanting sets created by Peter Ahlqvist, and Pirjo Liiri-Majava’s stunning costumes complete the whole thing.
The story is familiar, or depends on which version of H.C. Andersen’s fairy tale you have read or seen. However, most people are probably most familiar with the Disney version, and that’s what this show is based on. So we don’t see the mermaid suicide penned by Andersen. The red-haired Ariel (Sonja Pajunoja), who is in love with the alien prince Erik (Martti Manninen), struggles between the demands of two different worlds with their warnings and threats. Exploring a foreign world is illegitimate, but love makes you disobedient. Pajunoja and Manninen perform their vocal parts in an exemplary manner.
The musical, directed by Samuel Harjanne, aims to create emphases and hints that could be used to look at the world around us and listen to what kind of values are offered to us. The problem of difference is an obvious theme of the performance, but the implementation does not reach for more interpretations if you do not know that the director intended it.
The moving and insightful performance is magical. Bursting with its abundance, it sucks you in and you look at it with unceasing intensity. Right from the start, the audience reacted with applause to the scenes they considered amazing at the premiere. You don’t see that often. Throughout the stage, there is expertise and suitably comical elements. Spontaneous laughter bursts out every now and then, and it’s a rare treat for me. Thank you for the logs and the chef and many others. King Triton’s (Mikko Vihma) sea kingdom is full of the most enchanting creatures. Among them are different personalities, temperaments and wits, which leads to comical clashes.
The orchestra led by Risto Kupiainen rocks familiar songs in interesting arrangements, and the lyrics of the songs have also been renewed in places. The lines have also been edited in a funnier direction.
The dark court of Triton’s bitter sister Ursula (Sanna Saarijärvi) is exhilaratingly horrible. Ursula’s tentacles, which reach almost the entire edge of the stage, smell and feel like detectives, and Ursula gives her orders to her glowing-eyed subjects in a cruel voice. Saarijärvi’s performance is undeniably magnificent and suitably frightening.
Tuomas Uusitalo’s French chef marches his kitchen staff forward with such witty words and self-confident professional pride that the branches are cut off. The performer of Pärsky changes in different performances, but the premiere of Alek Pèrez Lahtinen’s Pärsky with its skateboards delights with its naturalness and skill. And let’s not forget Tuukka Leppänen’s moving seagull Skuutti.
I went to see the musical with my adult daughter, because her first video was the same Disney story. The views that made the videotape stretched have done their job, and changing some scenes gets critical reviews. But, this performance affects the dedicated, adult Ariel fan as a different whole. Visual virtuosity together with insightful stage work leaves a new kind of deep imprint.