A joyful and carnivalesque dystopia
The world has been destroyed, and only the employees of one theatre have managed to survive. They set out to build a new, better community – their Eden – but end up repeating all of humanity’s old mistakes.
“Even though we are living in a post-apocalyptic era, there will be plenty of musical joy on stage,” promises Juho Mantere, the writer and director of New Eden.
He describes the musical as Disney-esque: “The aim is to make this genuinely touching and at the same time really funny, like the best Disney musicals.”
Long-term cooperation
Mantere has created New Eden together with composer Henri Lyysaari. Their collaboration with musicals began already in 2019, when they made the musical Donkey Hot for Q-teatteri.
“It turned out to be incredibly good and well-liked, and I felt that there was something really cool about making a musical,” Mantere says.
“Musicals are a unique form of performing arts and it feels valuable to bring a new Finnish musical alongside American productions.”
Work on the new Eden began as early as 2020. It has been refined into its final form through long development and numerous versions. Mantere and Lyysaari have also held workshops at the Helsinki City Theatre, where they have tested the functionality of the text and developed it on stage.
Lyysaari says that the text and the music have been created side by side and fed each other during the process. The lyrics of the songs have been written in collaboration so that Mantere has had the initial idea of the lyrics and Lyysaari has taken them in the direction that the composition has required.
In the new Eden, the band is a rock quartet, which also hatches acoustic tones.
Lyysaari describes the compositions as melodic musical pieces in which Disney musical music meets rock aesthetics and Finnish schlager music. “The style choices are related to the characters and situations. Some characters are linked to 70s schlager and others are more rock-tinged. On the other hand, the whole ensemble may unexpectedly put their foot in a beautiful way, like in a classic Broadway musical,” he explains.
The sincerity of the music and the arc of the melody are influenced by Alan Menken, the composer of Disney films, and Richard Rodgers, who composed the classic musicals The Sound of Music and Oklahoma!, whom Lyysaari himself considers his most important role models in the field of musicals.
Laughter in the midst of gloomThe central theme of the new Eden is the desire of apocalyptic survivors to build a better world. However, it is precisely this effort that causes conflicts, as the characters have very different ideas about what the new world should be like and what rules it should operate by.
“All the characters are selfish and self-interested, but they are still looked upon warmly,” Mantere says.
At the same time, the play deals with broader social questions, such as what can you do for your own ideology? Does a well-functioning community require that everyone is like-minded? In addition, it explores the fundamental need of human beings to love and be loved.
Mantere assures that serious themes are dealt with by means of an entertaining musical. The humour is far-fetched and grotesque, like in South Park, for example.
“Comedy is part of my way of looking at the world. In the performance, even the darkest sides of humanity are looked at through humour,” Mantere says.
“We have a great group together, and we can’t wait for the training to start. It’s a really positive feeling to start exploring and building the world together with the team,” Lyysaari says.
Text Ida Henritius