Helsinki City Theatre has an amazing theatre autumn

Helsinki City Theatre is looking forward to the autumn. In addition to the musical theatre performances of the autumn season on the Main Stage, My Day as a Groundhog and Tatu and Patu in Helsinki, the autumn season will also feature new Finnish dramas, Red Orphans  on the Small Stage, directed by Lauri Maijala, and  Another Bottle of Cava on the Arena Stage. Friendship is also a theme at Studio Pasila, when Dinner among Friends, directed by Sari Siikander, premieres. In addition to the musical Once, which has already been announced at Lilla Teatern, Märta Tikkanen’s Män kan inte våldtas will have its Finnish premiere.

“We want to believe that we will survive the coronavirus chaos and that in the autumn, performance activities will continue normally and we will be able to offer our audience amazing experiences on all our stages,” says Theatre Director Kari Arffman.

Anneli Kanto and Lauri Maijala’s play Red Orphans will have its premiere on 2 September on a small stage. The new play touchingly deals with deep national trauma and the silenced period in Finnish history after the Civil War. The nation was divided, and there were almost 25,000 Red orphans in the country after the war, who were transferred from the cities to ideologically better growing conditions in Ostrobothnia under the leadership of the state elite.

The play tells the story of a family living in Kallio, Helsinki, whose father has died in the aftermath of the war and the mother is forced to give up her children because there is not enough food for everyone. The story of motherly love, hope and forgiveness gives a voice to those who were completely innocent of the events around them.

The role of the mother is played by Ella Mettänen, known from Riistapolku (2019), with Antti Autio, Anna Böhm and Wenla Reimaluoto as children, and Riitta Havukainen, Miika Laakso, Kari Mattila, Leena Rapola and Marjut Toivanen in the other roles. The set design is by Janne Vasama and the costumes by Tiina Kaukanen.

The successful play A Bottle of Cava and the Sun (2018) will continue on 10 September, when the familiar charming female quartet who founded a communal and individual retirement home in Portugal will return to the Arena stage. Are the old rules inspired by cava and drafted in the initial frenzy enough to guide coexistence even after two years of living together? The Second Bottle of Cava, which tells a warm and funny story about the life, friendship and aging of adults , is a new, independent work that can be enjoyed even by those who did not sip the first bottle.

Written by Helena Anttonen, this warm and insightful comedy is directed by Milko Lehto, and the actors familiar from the first part, Aino Seppo, Eija Vilpas, Heidi Herala and Jaana Saarinen , will now be joined by Eero Saarinen and Joel Hirvonen. The set design was designed by Katariina Kirjavainen and the costumes by Sanna Levo.

Friendship will also be a theme in Studio Pasila’s novelty from 17 September. Dinner With Friends (1998), which won the Pulizer Prize (2000) and is also known as a film (2001), is Sari Siikander’s first production at the Helsinki City Theatre. The play, written by Donald Marguelis, has been translated into Finnish by Aleksi Milonoff.

The dinner with friends deals with the breakup of one couple in a recognizable and humorous way and offers heart-wrenching verbal fireworks. How does the divorce affect those around you? Is a relationship just a couple’s relationship or do old friends need to choose sides in a breakup? How does your marriage feel when others divorce and find new loves?

The cast includes Risto Kaskilahti, Pihla Penttinen, Carl-Kristian Rundman and Ursula Salo. The set design is by Janne Siltavuori and the costumes by Elina Vättö.

From 5 September, the City Theatre’s Swedish-language stage at Lilla Teatern will feature Män kan inte våldtas, based on Märta Tikkanen’s iconic novel A Man Can’t Be Raped (1975) and also a classic film directed by Jörn Donner (1978). The play, which premiered at the Stockholm City Theatre in 2019 and is now being performed for the first time in Finland, has been dramatised by Lo Kauppi and directed and adapted by Sara Giese.

The main character, Tova Randers, celebrates her 40th birthday in Helsinki in 1975 and is raped at the end of a night out at a restaurant. Tova doubts she’ll ever get justice from the police. So she decides to take revenge on her rapist and subject him to the same violence and humiliation she was subjected to. But can a man be raped?

The role of Tova Randers will be played by Minttu Mustakallio , who is visiting the Helsinki City Theatre for the first time, and the other roles will be played by Ulriikka Heikinheimo, Robert Kock, Pia Runnakko, Joachim Wigelius and Alexander Wendelin. The set and costumes were designed by Sven Haraldsson.  The performance will be subtitled in Finnish.

HKT’s autumn season programme continues with the ever-popular Stones in Your Pocket and the traditional stand-up club Club act!one in Pasila. On the small stage, Kari Heiskanen’s hilarious comedy Stalin’s sweet whip continues. The programme for late autumn 2020 will be published at the opening of the year on 11 August 2020.

Read the new Theatre Extra here.

Next premieres at the Helsinki City Theatre:

2.9.2020 Red orphans on a small stage, dir. Lauri Maijala
3.9.2020 My Day as a Groundhog on the Big Stage, dir. Samuel Harjanne
5.9.2020 Men Can’t Be Raped Lilla Teaternissa, dir. Sara Giese
10.9.2020 Another bottle of cava on the Arena stage, dir. Milko Lehto
17.9.2020 dinner with friends studio in Pasila, dir. Sari Siikander
27.10.2020 Once Lilla Teaternissa, dir. Jakob Höglund
26.11.2020 Tatu and Patu on the big stage in Helsinki, dir. Sami Rannila

This release was edited on 4.8.2020.

Helsinki City Theatre ticket office, (09) 394022, Mon-Fri 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Lippupiste Mon-Sat 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. to 6 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, Kaisa Pelkonen, Communications Officer , kaisa.pelkonen@hkt.fi, 040 552 3788

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