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Tampere Theatre Festival 2010
Tampereen 42. teatterikesä
2 - 8 August 2010
The 42nd Tampere Theatre Festival takes place 2nd - 8th of August
Ireland's First Visit at Tampere Theatre Festival
Strong Irish stories are often seen on theatre stages worldwide. This time the island of tales dares to break traditions and find new ways to tell us about life here and now. The Main Programme in 2010 introduces two ground breaking Irish theatre groups, The Performance Corporation and Brokentalkers. PC's Power Point is an energetic business adventure, which is performed in an unusual place, the Ball Room of Hotel Ilves. Brokentalkers tell us about virtual love in their performance In Real Time, in which an actor in Dublin seeks connection with an actor in Tampere. Their second performance is about the sheer impossibility of homosexuality in Catholic Ireland, in not too distant past.
New Adaptions of Old Classics
The festival offers the audience two fresh and wonderful ways to examine the Russian soul through new adaptations of old classics. The award winning Pushkin Drama Theatre relies on strong images with their interpretation of Aleksander Ostrovsky's The Storm, directed by Lev Erenburg.
SounDrama Studio from Moscow has also brought its own insight into a classic. Gogol. Evenings: Spring is adapted from Nikolai Gogol's short story A May Night by Vladimir Pankov. The creative and multitalented theatre group manages to whip the village of Dikanka almost into a frenzy during their village fayre.
The Estonian theatre, NO99's, fine performances keep snapping up awards. One of their latest shows, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, is based on the provocative performance by the artist, Joseph Beuys in 1965. The play looks hilariously at culture and art in our changing world. The authors of the conseption are Tiit Ojasoo and Ene-Liis Semper.
The Second Year for the Prospero Project
The European theatre project, Prospero, brings Alvis Hermanis' direction, The Young Ladies of Wilko, performed by Emilia Romagna Teatro Italia, to the Festival. The Young Ladies of Wilko is an invitation to his emotional world. The second Prospero project performance comes from France. A director from the younger generation, Rachid Zanouda, has sank his teeth into the text by Bernard-Marie Koltès, Quai West, a story about illegal immigrants.
Subtitled Finnish-Swedish Plays
The activity and power of Finnish-Swedish theatre enrich the Finnish cultural life in a remarkable way. The festival introduces four plays, some subtitled into Finnish, some performed in Finnish. The plays are Happened So Far from Viirus, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp from Unga Teater, A Letter from Siberia from Lilla Teater and Eugen Schauman from Teater Mestola.
Performance Economy in Tampere Hall Only Once
Well-known Finnish playwright Juha Jokela has taken another sharp and thoughtful look at our times. Written and directed by him, Performance Economy is performed only once at Tampere Hall Main Auditorium and subtitled in English. It is a co-production between Tampere Theatre Festival and Tampere Hall.
Turku City Theatre's Fine Anna Karenina and Further than the Furthest Thing
Ukrainian director guru, Andriy Zholdak's, adaption of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, has been filling the auditoriums in Turku City Theatre. Co-produced by Theatre Academy Helsinki and The Aalto University School of Art and Design, the stunning Further than the Furthest Thing, is the final degree work by their students. Tampere Theatre Festival arranges a return trip to Turku to see Anna Karenina 4th August.
Celebration of Fine Acting Work and Fantastic Texts
Two performances can be seen at the festival, in which the actors revel the texts as well as take their audience. In A Little Money from TTT-Theatre in Tampere shine Aimo Räsänen and Tuire Salenius. KOM Theatre's Coming Soon lets loose Pirkko Saisio and Marja Packalén, who also co-wrote the play with Heini Junkkaala. A Little Money has been written by Sirkku Peltola.
Thalia Awarded The Camp on the Edge of the World
Rovaniemi Theatre's play The Camp on the Edge of the World, directed by Taava Hakala, grabbed the awards of Best Play, Best Set Design and Best Costume Design in the first Finnish theatre awards ceremony. The play's absurd twists in storyline are unapologetic and brazen, although the subject is serious: war.
History or Today's World
Theatre Vanha Juko's performance, Eight Fatal Bullets, is situated in today's industrial city, close to our every day life. Juha Luukkonen directed and also adapted the play from Mikko Niskanen's movie script from 1972. Its roots reach back as far as the Finnish Civil War. Directed by Kaisa Korhonen and performed by Kotka City Theatre, The World Is Just Beginning, is based on novel by Toivo Pekkanen. It looks at the paper industry strikes in 1929 and finds amazing similarities to this day.
Juha Hurme on Mediocrity
Juha Hurme looks at artistic mediocrity in the play he wrote and directed, The Phosporous Scoundrel. That's what they used to call Eero Kilpi (1978-1954), whose minor roles in The Finnish National Theatre made Finnish poet and theatre critic Aaro Hellaakoski claim in 1920 "Nothing will ever become of Eero Kilpi".
Dancing Theatre
Dance Theatre Minimi's Juha was dramatised and directed by Mikko Roiha and written by Juhani Aho as far back as 1911. Minimi's performance is clear and with little dialogue, Juha's tragedy timeless and true. Choreographer, Ari Numminen, leads the dancers and actors as well as musicians equally through the 2000 years old classic, Kama Sutra, performed by Theatre Telakka. Jyrki Karttunen Kollektiv take the viewers to the glittering 70's with the Days of Disco.
Tickets to the Main Programme performances are 12-34 euros.
Tampere Theatre Festival Programme
Tent 3.–7.8.2010
The Performers from Furthest Away Arrive from Borduria
The Programme Tent is an arena for a wide variety of performing arts, drama, dance, monologues, vocal performances and concerts. It is also a cosy, fully licensed bar. The Tent is pitched on the Central Square for the 11th time this year. Lovers of high level performing arts are entertained with ten performances on five days, August 3–7.
The most exotic guests of The Programme Tent arrive from Borduria, at least if we believe that a country called Borduria exists. Orkestar Bordurka’s music is inspired by the musical tradition of Balkan and the homeland of the orchestra is situated in an imaginary, Eastern European state called Borduria. To tell the truth, the orchestra consists of professional folk musicians, whose playing is seasoned with broken English and Bordurian folk dances.
Literary Art in Different Forms
Five performances open up a possibility to enjoy literary art: poetry, songs and monologues. Some of the earliest lyricism can be heard in Kanteletar.Two new generation composers, Eeppi Ursin and Maija Kaunismaa, have composed poems of Kanteletar, a collection of folk poetry that is
considered to be a sister collection to Finnish national epic Kalevala. Different kind of celebration of literary art is represented by Juha Tapio and Otto Kanerva, whose concert Stains on Paper concentrates on the Finnish lyrical masterpieces. Modern literary art is brought on stage by Mika
Eirtovaara, who searches for the meaning of life in his stand-up show.
Long Term Artists
Aulikki Oksanen and Kaisa Korhonen are finally seen together on stage again. Performance Flat Against the Heart consists of songs and poems about Finland, love and resistance. During the powerful evening we can hear Brecht, Lorca and Chydenius among others. Kaj Chydenius’ Singing Studio is playing in the Tent for the seventh time. During these years the audience has heard in total 150 Finnish poems that Chydenius has set to music. This year’s theme is mythology, night time atmosphere and strange stories.
Unique Combinations
One of the curiosities of the Tent is Magic!, a one-man-show directed by Neil Hardwick. The show combining magic and humour brings Robert Jägerhorn, one of Finland’s premier magicians, to Tampere. Motion can be found in Of(f) Course, directed by Reija Wäre, which brings seven professional dancers and seven different dance genres on stage. Ballet and break-dance among others are represented in the show, in which dance genres playfully compete against each other.
Famous Music
Actor Juha Kukkonen’s burning voice can be enjoyed in performance Me and Leonard, in which Kukkonen performs ballads by legendary Leonard Cohen. Heikki Salo, The king of story-telling offers the audience Finnish rock lyrics as its best, when he takes the stage with his new band Tulipalo.
PHOTO:
Quai Ouest / Eastern Wharf
Photo: C. Ablain
More information on our website: www.teatterikesa.fi
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