City Theatre starts new cooperation with the Theatre Academy

Helsinki City Theatre is starting a three-year collaboration with the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, in which students in the third year of the Degree Programme in Acting will come to Studio Pasila in the spring and prepare a performance as their bachelor’s project together with professionals from outside the school. The students’ first performance will be Decamerone, arranged and directed by Akse Pettersson.

With the new collaboration, 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.

“Not only will we get a new kind of art, but also new blood and maybe even new ideas. After all, different generations think quite differently about acting and working life. All theatres have their own ways of working. Everything can be questioned,” says theatre director Kari Arffman.

The three-year collaboration begins with Akse Pettersson’s adaptation and direction of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decamerone, written in the 14th century, together with 12 acting students. 

In Decamerone , a group of young people escape the plague raging in the city and tell stories for their lives while impatient love burns in their hearts. When life seems hopelessly bleak, our only salvation is to love even more passionately.

“Boccaccio’s excesses and his detachment from the moral concepts of the time feels fresh in this context and with this particular group, even though at the same time it is a matter of life and death,” Pettersson says.

The performance, which premieres at Studio Pasila on 21 April , stars Ola Blick, Tuulia Eloranta, Roderick Kabanga, Eeva Kaihola, Ella Lymi, Eeva Mäkinen, Carlos Orjuela, Jasir Osman, Tuuli Paju, Denisa Snyder, Milla Tissari and Daniel Virtanen.

The set design is by Antti Mattila and the costumes by Sanna Levo. The lighting designer is Kristian Palmu and the sound designer is Matti Raita. The camouflage is designed by Henri Karjalainen and Jaana Nykänen.

Decamerone premiere 21.4.2021 at 7 pm and performances until 19.5.2021 at the Helsinki City Theatre’s studio Pasila (Ratamestarinkatu 5)
Tickets: €15.50 – €31 (incl. pm)
#decamerone #hktfi #uniarts #taideyliopisto #teatterikorkeakoulu

Helsinki City Theatre’s ticket sales and customer service by phone 09 394022 Mon-Fri 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and Lippupiste Mon-Sat 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., tel. 0600 900 900 (2 €/min + local network charge) 
www.hkt.fi

Press photos can be found in the image bank and press releases in the newsroom.
Further information, media ticket reservations and interview requests: Helsinki City Theatre, Communications Manager Kaisa Pelkonen, kaisa.pelkonen@hkt.fi, 040 552 3788

Helsinki City Theatre, Ensi linja 2, 00530 Helsinki