In August 2012 Tampere Theatre Festival and TINFO Theatre Info Finland organize together their second Finnish Showcase, a promotional event of theatre exporting, as a part of the 44th edition of the Tampere Theatre Festival. The Finnish Showcase presents for Festival’s foreign guests a selection of contemporary Finnish theatre that is heading abroad. This year’s selection gives an excellent example of the vast variety and multiplicity of the Finnish Theatre scene today. Foreign guests have an opportunity to get acquainted with a total of sixteen performances.
The Finnish Showcase consists of three parts: the six Finnish plays with English subtitles that are a part of the Main Programme and two promotional events on Friday 10th and on Saturday 11th of August, both taking place at Tampere University’s Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre. On Friday ten theatre groups perform short demos of their recent or upcoming works. Saturday’s event, organised together with Nordic Drama Corner and Agency North, focuses on new Finnish drama. During the Festival week there are also gatherings and other smaller events organised especially for Festival’s foreign guests as a part of the Finnish Showcase programme.
From the Main Programme Saara Turunen’s Broken Heart Story (Q-theatre), Leea Klemola’s Jessica’s Pup (Kuopio City Theatre), Andriy Zholdak’s version of Tsehov’s Uncle Vanya (Klockrike Theatre), Anna Krogerus’ Bad Child – Defense of Innocense (Kajaani City Theatre), Milja Sarkola’s The Family Member (Teatteri Takomo) and The Last Morning Star – Voices from the Siperian Taiga (Kokkola City Theatre & Ruska Ensemble) take part in the Finnish Showcase.
Friday’s event showcases ten short demos of performances by The Black Box’s Theatre Company, Mill Theatre, Tuija Töyräs and Tiina Jokitalo, Teatteri Metamorfoosi, Karttunen Kollektiv, United Snakes, Dance Theatre MD, Loistava-Company, Project pH6 and Blaue Frau.
The Finnish Showcase is organised by Tampere Theatre Festival and TINFO in collaboration with Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre, Nordic Drama Corner and Agency North.
Finnish Showcase 2012 | IN THE MAIN PROGRAMME
BROKEN HEART STORY | Q-teatteri Written & Directed by Saara TurunenFri 10.8. at 19.00 Sat 11.8. at 16.30Tampereen Teatteri, Päänäyttämö (1 h 40 min). Subtitled in English Trailer of the performace Tickets 29/27 € BUY ONLINEBroken Heart Story is a stylish demonstration of skill and talent of young theatre makers. It is a fascinating, powerfully distinctive entity of art work which reflects identity: artistry and womanhood. The story depicts a journey of a moustached woman and her forgotten Soul, buried somewhere in the clutter of an unopened closet; sincere in her thirst for love amidst the norms and expectations of the society.
The poetic and intensely visual work seamlessly combines elements from both popular and so-called high culture. It is impossible to shun from the eternal, universal questions in the play’s naive, at times almost nightmarish world: To be a subject or an object? Can art change reality?
Broken Heart Story is “a powerful art experience which leaves its imprint on you for a long time to come.” (Eeva Kemppi; Teatteri&Tanssi Magazine)
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JESSICA’S PUP (Jessikan pentu) | Kuopio City Theatre Written & Directed by Leea KlemolaThu 9.8. at 19.00 Fri 10.8 at 14.00Tampereen Teatteri, Frenckell (1 h 25 min). Subtitled in English Trailer of the performance Tickets 29/27 € BUY ONLINEJessica’s Pup returns Homo Sapiens back to nature – people grow tails and are proud of their fur.
Leea Klemola’s Jessica – Born Free play reached a cult reputation. Now Jessica’s family returns on stage in this independent play. The Jessica with growing pains we knew has become a mother herself; yet, there is no sign motherhood has brought her peace or contentment. Jessica rents a theatre stage and by means of fiction and a web cam, desperately struggles to explain to her son why the family got lost from the path common to all.
Jessica’s Pup deals with the human relationship with nature and the fellow creatures, but also with technology. The simultaneously hilarious and melancholic performance gives us a nudge: development and progression are not always synonymous.
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UNCLE VANYA (Morbror Vanja) | Klockrike Theatre Written by Anton Tsehov & Andriy Zholdak Directed and Concept by Andriy ZholdakWed 8.8. at 18.30 Thu 9.8. at 13.00Pakkahuone (4 h, intermission). Performed in Swedish, subtitles in Finnish Trailer of the performance Tickets 42/40 € BUY ONLINEAfter Anna Karenina, Director Andriy Zoldak has taken Chekhov’s love-thirsty characters who are mourning their wasted lives in his powerful grasp. The outcome is a magnificent, uncompromising Uncle Vanya.
“Zholdak’s theatre is first and foremost theatre of grand images and emotions. He is a master of constructing multi-layered stage imagery. He is constantly striving to create the most accurate illusions of reality while at the same time drilling deep into the many layers of the surreal and the subconscious.” (Irmeli Haapanen, Turun Sanomat)
The emotional power of the play is superbly channelled to the audience by the actors. Among others, Krista Kosonen and Alma Pöysti’s work is breathtakingly skilled. Their characters’ all-embracing love struggles to reach out to the unreachable; they yearn, they lust, they rage with passion.
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BAD CHILD – DEFENCE OF INNOCENSE (Paha lapsi – viattomuuden puolustus)| Kajaani City Theatre Written by Anna Krogerus Directed by Eero-Tapio VuoriWed 8.8. at 19.00 Thu 9.8. at 16.00Sorin Sirkus, Ahlmanintie 63 (2 h 15 min, väliaika). Subtitled in English Tickets 29/27 € BUY ONLINEDo you really remember what it felt like to be a child?
Bad Child is s story of a family breaking apart told from the perspective of a young boy Eetu. The play takes a sensitive and incisive approach to depicting how a child experiences the divorce of his parents and the numerous challenges within a new, blended family.
Actor Mika Silvennoinen’s interpretation of the protagonist is nuanced with lightness and compassion; the impressive growth story is spiced up with crisp humor. Bad Child is a “cathartic and empowering theatre that caresses and embalms the soul of the spectator.” (Eeva Kauppinen, Kaleva)
The play is produced in Kajaani in cooperation with early educators. Anna Krogerus wrote the story first in the form of prose which was then gradually adapted on stage along with the rehearsals. The story will also be published as a book.
The play is not recommended for under 13-year-olds. Pre-teens are welcome to see the performance together with their parents.
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THE FAMILY MEMBER (Perheenjäsen) | Teatteri Takomo Written & Directed by Milja SarkolaSat 11.8. at 19.00 Sun 12.8. at 12.30Tampereen Teatteri, Frenckell (2 h 35 min, intermission). Subtitled in English Tickets 29/27 € BUY ONLINEThis play could take place in any family; it is so skilfully based on a range of individual and collective experiences. The Family Member, written and directed by Milja Sarkola, is “a performance that gives a welcome boost to theatre art.” (Maria Säkö; Tulva.fi)
The very core of the performance focuses on the relationship between a parent and a child. Moreover, The Family Member reflects conflicts between both parenthood and making art in not one, but two generations. It brings on stage a family disconnected from each other.
In the virtuoso working group’s hands The Family Member creates heart-wrenchingly beautiful and ingeniously comic situations. In March 2012, the work was rewarded with the Thalia Prize in the field of theatre with the words “an impressive performance that penetrates deep into the human mind”.
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THE LAST MORNING STAR – VOICES FROM THE SIBERIAN TAIGA (Viimeinen aamutähti – Ääniä Siperian Taigalta) | Kokkola City Theatre & Ruska Ensemble Written by Jeremei Aipin, Adapted by Ari-Pekka Lahti, Jarkko Lahti & Working Group Directed by Ari-Pekka LahtiSat 11.8. at 19.00 Sun 12.8. at 12.30Tampereen Teatteri, Frenckell (2 h 35 min, intermission). Subtitled in English Tickets 29/27 € BUY ONLINEThis play could take place in any family; it is so skilfully based on a range of individual and collective experiences. The Family Member, written and directed by Milja Sarkola, is “a performance that gives a welcome boost to theatre art.” (Maria Säkö; Tulva.fi)
The very core of the performance focuses on the relationship between a parent and a child. Moreover, The Family Member reflects conflicts between both parenthood and making art in not one, but two generations. It brings on stage a family disconnected from each other.
In the virtuoso working group’s hands The Family Member creates heart-wrenchingly beautiful and ingeniously comic situations. In March 2012, the work was rewarded with the Thalia Prize in the field of theatre with the words “an impressive performance that penetrates deep into the human mind”.