An action-packed gaming adventure is bubbling with the energy of Shed youth
Alice in the Game Land is a new musical written in honor of Shed’s 10th anniversary, which draws on Lewis Carroll’s classic fairy tale. This time, Alice’s adventure takes us to the video game Wonderland.
The play’s scriptwriter and director Jyri Numminen wanted to bring the world of children and young people to the musical through gamification. According to him, the performance emphasizes fun and lightness.
“I believe that young people find it entertaining when the scenes are bubbly and the stimuli come at the right tempo. There are quick words and a lot of small comical throws,” Numminen describes.
The game world can also be heard in the music: influences have been sought especially from retro games, but there are many different styles from pop music to Eurovision-like and schlager vibes.
A tribute to gaming culture
In the play, Alice is playing for the first time, so the viewer also gets to know the world and rules of the Wonderland game with her.
The story progresses from one encounter to another like the fairy tale Alice in Wonderland . The characters mix the worlds of fairy tales and games, and they meet, among others, the moderator Kani_Valkonen and the Queen of Hearts, who rules the game world.
The viewer does not have to be familiar with the game. However, for gaming enthusiasts, there are recognizable references and details hidden in the show.
“If a pig has fallen from the wall because an angry bird has flown towards it, someone may realise that this is a reference to Angry Birds. Such small things have been cultivated there to be found, but they are not so big that you can’t enjoy the performance without knowing anything about them,” Numminen says.
Saija-Reetta Kotirinta , producer at the Shed Foundation, sees this as one of the strengths of the performance: “The text is very present and looks young, but I believe that adults and middle-aged people will also find their own funny things in it.”
Numminen has wanted to channel the idea that gaming is not just a useless pastime, but that games can also have skillful storytelling and great emotions.
“This is a tribute to gaming culture and an opportunity to highlight the positive things related to gaming,” Numminen says.
Games develop, among other things, perseverance, tolerance of incompleteness and social skills. For many, virtual reality, which opens up through games, can be an important social world and the only place where you can be yourself.
Everyone can join in
Shed is a musical theatre group that includes 80 children and young people aged 10–19.
They get to make the musical together with the Helsinki City Theatre’s teachers, professional actors, artistic designers and the rest of the theatre’s working group. The collaboration between the Shed Foundation and the Helsinki City Theatre enables inclusive musical theatre activities on an exceptionally large scale.
“The great thing is that everyone is welcome to join, regardless of the child’s or young person’s background. We don’t start valuing who can and who can’t. Everyone can do things from their own starting point with the contribution they can,” Kotirinta says.
The principle of the Shed is that everyone has the right to perform. According to the teacher in charge Hanna Nuorala , the aim of the activities is to challenge the structures that have limited who has access to the theatre stages. At the same time, the activity can broaden the perception of who can be an actor.
“It’s great that we are slowly living in a period of transition, when we can ask whether a young person with an intellectual disability could study to become a professional actor. Would it be possible one day?” Kotirinta thinks.
The year culminates in a musical
Shed’s year begins in the spring season with training in dance, singing and acting. At the same time, the group becomes familiar and the young people gain courage to do what they do.
At this stage, the young people do not yet know which musical will be performed in the autumn, even though the themes are already present in the rehearsals. The aim is to get them to produce their own ideas that can be used in the presentation.
This spring, the young people did, for example, warm-up exercises to the beat of game music, choreographies for platform games and discussed what the games mean to them.
“We want to be inspired by young people so that their pure creative energy is visible in the work,” Numminen explains.
The young people have also contributed to the comedy of the play, as the text includes jokes they have invented and collected. “Young people already have a sense of humour, so I believe that when the text provides stimuli for humour, it will still ignite on stage,” Nuorala says.
The anniversary performance shows concretely what has been essential in Shed’s operations for ten years. “Come and see what young people are capable of when you give them a chance,” Numminen sums up.
“If you want a meaningful theatre experience that has the power, joy and touching nature of working together, that’s what Shed Youth offers,” Nuorala promises.
Text by Ida Henritius.