Review: Suomen hauskin mies

WHEN THE CUP OF SUFFERING IS AT ITS PEAK

With some performances, you immediately know that this is good. From the very first picture, you can see that the idea is ready, the point of view is clear and the team is motivated, with a working group with implementation skills at hand.

Such an absolutely excellent theatrical performance is FINLAND’S FUNNIEST MAN, written by Heikki Kujanpää and Mikko Reitala and directed by Kujanpää. Its unforced skill and touchiness avoids any kind of trendiness and so it is much more than that. An experience.

The tracks were scary, though. Now to make a comedy from a Red prison camp during the Civil War. It is not easy to laugh at the suffering of war. Then you have to dare to be cruel and dare to be on the side of something, against something.

The funniest man in Finland is. The director of the Workers’ Theatre, Toivo (the sovereign Martti Suosalo in a precise role) agitated the people of his theatre to join the Red Guard, but fled elsewhere to go on adventures. However, Toivo ends up in a prison camp, where his theatre people are already languishing.

The camp’s Jaeger Lieutenant Nyborg (Heikki Ranta doing a great role) recognizes the heroic actor of his youth, and soon Toivo and his theatre troupe are preparing a farce for the camp leader (chilling Rauno Ahonen) and his guests to sustain their lives.

Kujanpää directs the mellow and precise text with magical certainty and good rhythm. The stage of the City Theatre’s small stage spins at just the right moment, spinning the ensemble and Pekka Korpiniity’s magnificent sets (stylish lighting by Kari Leppälä, costumes by Sari Salmela), stunning soundscape (Aleksi Saura) and charming music (Timo Hietala).

The stage visual performance is a light-hearted story that slips into a real bush between tragic twists and turns. And yet the performance is humane and merciful. The hand is extended over the front lines, touchingly. It hit and sank.