Review: THE LORD OF THE RINGS at Tampere, both Exciting and Emotional Journey

Congratulations to Tampere! The Lord Of The Rings has sold out all its shows for this year. I am not surprised after witnessing the spectacle myself. Minor spoilers included amongst this spectator analysis.

Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) is a co-production between Tampere’s theatre and Tampere-talo. It has employed over 250 people and as someone working with disabled people, I’m also glad Theatre NEO has been a part of this production.

Overall director Mikko Kanninen has done a great casting that doesn’t look at a gender but actor’s work, which is very welcomed but undoubtedly demanding.  Nonetheless acting-wise I think everyone hit the mark. It’s funny how Bilbo (finely reluctant Eeva Hakulinen) sparked mixed reactions in me and my fiancé. I thought Hakulinen showed finely the thought of “I hate all these guests” as she described in the program, but my fiancé made different interpretations (but let's admit it, he's not the critic here).  

Let’s (also) cut the cake in casting. Here are a few heroes that stole my heart and left no crumbs. They are Frodo (lively Ella Mettänen), Sam (finely flabbergasted Antti Tiensuu) and Aragorn (precise Antti Reini). Mettänen and Tiensuu are a couple in real life as is stated in the program, and their chemistry really shows it. They are very lively and convincing, whether in solo or together. Taina Kopra has ran a melodramatic workshop for the actors and it really shows in every actors work, just as I stated before. Things aren’t certainly left small.

In the program Reini shares how “the thought behind every bit of acting should be clear” and it really shows in his work, which was very enjoyable. A special mention also for Arttu Soilumo, who had an excellent status and full characterwork as Galadriel, but should have used more imagination as Mouth of Sauron. Their style of speech stayed a little too same with Galadriel and I would have loved to hear braver melodic and rhythmic choices. Esko Roine voiced through a pre-recording a grand Treebeard puppet, which totally astonished me. Both Roine and the puppeteer inside Sampo Suihkonen does an excellent job.

There's also something that didn't work out at all times: live-streaming closeups. Streamers couldn’t scale Treebeard’s face as a whole but the mouth was left out of the frame, and all we could see were its goggly rolling eyes, although they were fun to watch. Tampere-talo’s hall is so large that they’ve invested in live-streaming the actors expressions. I liked it, even though the angles weren’t perfect at all times. People working behind the cameras (Joonas Järventie, Ukko Majamaa and Niko Hukka) focus mainly on Frodo and his expressions, though at times there could have been more interesting things to capture, something more urgent, like in the the Council of Elrond scene. At times the cameras are lost and move very slowly and I cannot know if camerawork has been planned beforehand and actors should follow the script or is it the other way around. But the more the story is established through speaking, the more we get action later on stage. Too bad cameras can't capture all of it in time.

Story-wise the pacing is excellent in this adaptation, thanks to the dramaturg Sami Keski-Vähälä, who has worked with LOTR adaptations in Finland before, as has Pirjo Liiri-Majava who yet again did a fine job with the costume desing. Arwen’s orange dress stuck in my mind for a long time! How I yearn to have a morning garment of that sort.

Layers worked well on the stage (set design by Marjatta Kuivasto) and the projections were creative, especially when we got to experience masses of water. Also, how a precise white light was set on Frodo's face in times he needed to look pale worked incredibly well (lighting and videodesign by Joonas Tikkanen). At times, especially in the beginning, the atmosphere ended up being dollhouse-like, almost too 2D, but again: as the story went onwards, the more we got to experience. Also, this was a very auditory-experience, especially for me, because Tuomas Kantelinen’s composition really took me by an awe. Thanks to the whole live-orchestra, including conductor Ruut Kiiski and Kantelinen himself. The performance is not throughout scored, thank God, but finely adds a spark of adventure, joy, sadness, suspension or whatever is needed to the whole.

Something I enjoyed extra much were the special effects and how they were handled. The tentacles were fantastic, but I wished I’d seen them sooner. Frodo’s body trapped in cobweb sent shivers to my spine. I think you can count circus tricks as special effects, for the elves in the trees were very breathtaking with their dangerous-looking tricks. But what it comes to the destroying of the Ring, it left to be a little anticlimatic. I got more moved by Denethor’s (convincing Arttu Ratinen) fiery suicide than the grand moment of katharsis we get in LOTR when the great temptation, the One Ring is gone. However we ended up taking a note of a peculiar voice we heard from the stage after the scene changed, as if a sound of a mechanical fire extinguisher. We cannot know: do contact me if that was the case, we saw the show on 19.9.2024.

All in all Lord of the Rings at Tampere-talo looks and sounds good and is easy to follow. What is there more to ask for? It surprises you, let’s you in on your own feelings of yearning, sadness and responsibility. At least it did for me.

Thank you whole LOTR crew!

Review: Rosanna Ilo Liuski
Photos: Mikko Karsisto

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