"Trash birds of all nations, unite!"
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By Suna Vuori
The beginning is quite innocent.
The Welli & Puuronen detective agency are asked to find out where the songbirds of Suurpuisto Park and Fox the park guard have disappeared. The cases seem to be linked to one another in the strangest way - and to the fact that Turo Penguin recently opened an ice-cream stand in the park.
The 20th anniversary performance of the Helsinki-based Totem theatre group, Welli & Puuronen liemessä ("Gruel & Porridge in Hot Water"), is exceptional in that there is much talk and little movement.
Arn-Henrik Blomqvist has written and directed a play that is traditional, and as such funny, fast-paced, and even educational. Its themes revolve around fear and ways to conquer it. It is something of a departure for Totem, which often performs without words, focusing on dance.
The work also touches on the cycle of life, climate change, justice, and equality.
Päivi Rissanen and Pasi Lappalainen are on the stage playing a number of roles, ranging from the detectives to news readers to various flying creatures.
There is a swan who is afraid of water, a bat who is afraid of the dark, an owl who feels stupid, an eagle who is bullied by those smaller than himself, a penguin who perspires (because things are getting hotter), and a crow who, with the help of some agitation, starts organising a revolution of scavenger birds.
Soon a crow with the appearance of a skid-row bum organises a demonstration. "Eat your own trash", proclaims one sign.
The characters are created with rapid switches, mimicry, various voices, and a few quite simple wardrobe decisions. It works well.
At the end the riddle is solved, the lost ones are found, and even the scavenger birds arise from their downtrodden state. Turo Penguin, who had selfishly sought his own comfort, promises to go into adult education, because "education is the source of all wisdom".
The itinerant performance is an excellent opening for discussions for themes that unite many different kinds of people, both small and large.
When the audience gets a chance to ask questions after the performance, the first one comes in just a second: "Did you really have diarrhoea?"
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.11.2006
More on this subject:
 Children's theatre happy to be marginalised
SUNA VUORI / Helsingin Sanomat
suna.vuori@hs.fi
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