A co-play between the City Theatre and the Theatre Academy was replaced by Kristian Smeds’ God is Beauty
Helsinki City Theatre and the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki’s spring 2022 co-production and director are changing. The performance of Viggo Mortensen’s Horses , written and directed by Leea Klemola, has been cancelled and the director has been replaced by Kristian Smeds. An entire class of future theatre artists will introduce themselves and take on the role of visual artist Vilho Lampi at Studio Pasila from 23 April onwards in Smeds’ play God is Beauty (2000), based on Paavo Rintala’s novel.
“The joint journey of twelve young actors into the shoes of visual artist Vilho Lampi will heat up the stage of Studio Pasila into quite a spring storm! Now we are conjuring up a powerful stage spell for freedom and life!”, says director Kristian Smeds.
The play tells the story of a young artist’s struggle with himself and the world around him. The painter Vilho Lampi (1898–1936) from Liminka searches for his own expression in Ostrobothnia and Paris, gets excited and disappointed again and again, all the while striving towards the realm of beauty. Lampi seeks answers in politics, sinks into ecstasy in the Louvre and identifies with both Vincent van Gogh and aspen. He is an outsider everywhere, and there is no place for his integrity in this world. Lampi’s life is alternately one of joy and despair, but she never ceases to ask or seek beauty.
The play is not only a depiction of the artist, but also a play about experiencing beauty, the search for divinity and the difficulty of being human. It tells the story of a person who reaches towards eternity.
The performance is a continuation of the three-year collaboration between the Theatre Academy’s Degree Programme in Acting and the Helsinki City Theatre, which began in the spring of 2021, in which third-year students of acting come to Studio Pasila for the spring and prepare a performance as their bachelor’s project together with professionals from outside the school.
Through the cooperation, acting students will get to know professionals in their own field and their working methods and practices in Finland’s largest theatre. At the same time, the theatre and the audience will have the opportunity to get to know the students in the field and the promises of the future. In the spring of 2021, the collaboration resulted in the completion of Decamerone, directed by Akse Pettersson.
The God is Beauty performance, which premieres at Studio Pasila on 23 April, stars Veera Anttila, Ville Hilska, Juhana Hurme, Milla Kaitalahti, Akseli Lehtinen, Kate Lusenberg, Heikki Nousiainen, Alexandra Oupornikova, Nana Saijets, Julius Susimäki, Mauno Terävä and Juuso Timonen.
The set design is by Kristian Smeds and Katariina Kirjavainen. The costumes are designed by Vilma Mattila, the lighting designer is Jaakko Sirainen and the sound designer is Ville Aalto. The camouflage is designed by Henri Karjalainen and the choreography by Antti Lahti. The dramaturg is Rosa-Maria Perä and the director’s assistant is Jussi Lankoski.
Theatre director and playwright Kristian Smeds is one of the top names in Finnish theatre. Smeds founded Teatteri Takomo in 1996 and served as its artistic director until 2001. He conducted the Kajaani City Theatre from 2001 to 2004. In 2011, he was awarded the European Theatre Prize for New Theatrical Realities as the first Nordic theatre maker. Smeds’ best-known productions are The Unknown Soldier (2007) at the Finnish National Theatre and Mental Finland (2009), which premiered in Brussels. In 2018, Smeds started as a professor of acting at the Theatre Academy. Her term ends in the summer of 2022, and God is beauty will be her last job as a professor. Smeds’ previous visit to the Helsinki City Theatre was also a collaboration with the Theatre Academy: at that time, he was involved as a student and directed, costumed and staged the dramatisation of Matti Pulkkinen’s novel A Proposal for a Love Drama (1994).
The premiere of God is Beauty on 23.4.2022 at 6 p.m. at the Helsinki City Theatre’s studio in Pasila (Ratamestarinkatu 5)
Tickets: student ticket 15 € (Mon-Thu), pensioner ticket 27 € (Mon-Thu), basic ticket 30 €
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