Review: Pieni merenneito
An incredible undersea adventure
The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most beloved and legendary musicals. We are used to seeing a colourful undersea world in an animated film, where
Ariel swims with her red hair flowing with her fish friends.
Now the Helsinki City Theatre has moved that colourful celebration from the screen to the stage.
Ariel (Sonja Pajunoja) does not feel like she belongs in her underwater home, but she would like to
get to know people walking on dry land, whose lost items in the sea have been collected by the little mermaid as a collection in a secret cave.
One stormy day, he ends up rescuing a prince who has fallen into the water
Erik (Martti Manninen) and loses his heart in the process.
With the help of the evil sea witch Ursula (Annamaria Karhulahti), Ariel gets a chance
to conquer the prince for themselves.
How is it possible to create an undersea, lightly dreamlike world on stage,
On which the actors have been tied to the floor by gravity?
The job has required countless hours of work, but the challenge has been successful.
The actors are in constant motion, as if swayed by the ocean currents and the mermaids’
The tails are ingeniously executed.
Ariel and Prince Erik sometimes twirl around in the harness in an incredibly authentic look.
There are so many details on stage that one viewing is not enough
to notice them all. In large musical scenes in front of the audience’s eyes
swims shoals of fish that seem so alive that the viewer notices the
a childlike, delighted smile.
A few parts of the musical should amaze the Little Mermaid through and through
viewers. Ariel’s friend the seagull Joonas has been named Skuutti in the musical.
Most puzzling, however, is Ariel’s friend Pärsky, to whom an embarrassing
An over-interpreted infatuation with a mermaid. The figure of the little fish has been realized otherwise
brilliant – the appearance is boyish with backpacks, helmets and skateboards
– and 12-year-old Lenni Kallela is inclined to an incredible singing performance.
Why on earth does this perfect performance have to be mixed with embarrassing
Crush?
In the final scenes, Ariel in the musical is more powerful and active than in the film version.
It’s a great innovation! The mermaid’s father, Triton (Mikko Vihma), also turns out to be a delightful feminist.
There are a lot of details in the musical that I would like to praise in particular. Eel
Kiero and Liero (Antti Timonen and Paavo Kääriäinen) move unbelievably wonderfully.
Even more astonishing is the sea witch Ursula with all her tentacles. A flock of stepping gulls
takes the heart with it, and the sea-themed wooden leg jokes embedded in the dialogue cause spontaneous bursts of laughter.
The Little Mermaid is close to perfection. I would like to go and see it again and again
and again.