Review: FORK ACAPELLA GROUP'S CHAPTER ONE: THE END at Swedish Theatre Of Helsinki

This was my first time seeing and most of all hearing the FORK acapella group. They started in 1996, so after 22 years of touring they have decided to call it quits. The show had the atmosphere of a funeral in terms of clothing and lighting, but later on after the intermission it rose to celebration, bright colors of beauty and joy of memorial.

FORK Chapter One: The End. The Swedish theatre of Helsinki, Stora scenen.
On Stage Anna Asunta, Mia Hafrén, Jonte Ramsten, Kasper Ramström
Sound Design Grégory Maisse, Light Design Tobias Lönnquist, Stylist Sofia Oksanen, Clothing Teemu Muurimäki, Make Up and Hair Design Miika Kemppainen.

This was my first time seeing and most of all hearing the FORK acapella group. They started in 1996, so after 22 years of touring they have decided to call it quits. The show had the atmosphere of a funeral in terms of clothing and lighting, but later on after the intermission it rose to celebration, bright colors of beauty and joy of memorial.

All of the instrument needed were the singers' own voices.

The framing of the show is clear: first there's the funeral and after intermission the memorial. The performers are dressed up in black, Anna Asunta wears lace on her face. The first song is booming, Jonte's bass amazing. I was only left wondering about the lights of the first minutes, which blinked and light up all of the performers at the same time. I was waiting for a moment where they would have light up the performers one at a time, and in the end, all of them at the same time before any movement choreography.

The lighting show by Tobias Lönnquist was its best at the Alive, which Mia sung gorgeously, and on the second half I enjoyed of the mixing of the turquoise and orange.

The performers' voices fit together uniquely. The ranges are wide and flexible. Jonte is amazing as Gaga as he really throws himself into it. Mia's guitar solo, which she also sang by the help of voice mix by Grégory Maisse, during the High Way to Hell was one of the best moments of the show, also her chemistry with Anna in that scene. Anna shines and gets moved in Let it Go, which clearly symbolizes her letting go of the band. Kasper hops into the audience during his solo and shouldn't have apologized of his act.

The genres vary in this show. We hear songs from Sia, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and Nicki Minaj, to name a few. Bang Bang song was one of my favorites. I might have been the only one who knew it by heart and jammed to it, because at the premiere, the average age was about 50, which the performers joked about too. I also thoroughly enjoyed of Beat it, but was very sad about the fact that Thriller wasn't sung, even though we heard the monologue of it with the background beats and tunes. I was waiting for a small pause and then a huge bang into the song.

I loved how FORK gave us permission to sing along and to dance whenever we wanted to. The contact with the audience was also good, but could have been a little more relaxed and real. I'm not used to the American-style of provoking the audience so to my taste there was a little too much of "I can't hear you"s or "Helsinki, how are you doing?"s. At the beginning it was fun, for example when they silently signed us to applaud as they drunk water, but later on it didn't just work that well. But hey, they are doing it big, they even speak in English because it's more-- you know it-- Rock'n'Roll!

At the end there was a very beautiful moment when they invited us to sing along so that we shouldn't think of what others thought. That moment allowed me a moment of katharsis, which means that I got sucked into the performance and forgot about life for a moment.

Thank you, FORK and farewell.

Article: Rosanna Liuski
Photos: Juha Mustonen