Helsinki City Theatre’s autumn offers theatre delicacies for all tastes
In the autumn of 2022, Helsinki City Theatre will bring to the small stage the premiere of the Finnish novelty I Chose You, directed by Milja Sarkola, and the touching family depiction Kultalampi on the Arena stage. Studio Pasila will premiere Dangerous Relationships, directed by Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen, and Lilla Teatern will host bestselling author Elena Ferrante’s My Fantastic Friend. Other premieres in the autumn season include the party musical Priscilla and the postponed from the spring, Kris och katastrof i Moominalen based on Tove Jansson’s comics, and the fantasy adventure My Friend the Pelican for the whole family. The Contemporary Performance Stage, which will start its operations at Studio Pasila in May with guest performances, will bring premieres from three artists to the programme in August.
Helsinki City Theatre opens its autumn season by bringing to the Finnish audience the classic party musicals Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (2006), which has become a phenomenon around the world, on 25 August. The musical, known for its music consisting of disco hits and spectacular costumes, is directed by Samuel Harjanne, one of the top names in Finnish musical theatre, and the main roles are played by Lauri Mikkola, Clarissa Jäärni and Niklas Rautén, who travel on a Priscilla bus through the Australian desert.
The autumn season continues with Ernest Thompson’s play Kultalampi (1979) on the Arena stage on 8 September. The wistful and touching depiction of family, a long relationship, inevitable change and the transience of everything has continued to be a worldwide success from one decade to the next.
Norman and Ethel have returned to their villa in Kultalampi to spend the summer, but there is a special wistfulness and a feeling of giving up in the air. The daughter arrives to celebrate her father’s 80th birthday with her new husband, and the parents promise to take their daughter’s new spouse’s 13-year-old son with them for the summer. A surprising summer visitor gives Norman’s life a new direction; The fishing equipment is dug out and she and her son go to the lake.
The play is directed by Tuomo Aitta and stars the amazing Heidi Herala (Ethel), Juhani Laitala (Norman), Jussi Puhakka, Emilia Sinisalo, Sauli Suonpää and Kuura Rossi / Vertti Uusitalo.
The new Finnish play I Chose You will premiere on a small stage on 22 September. Set in Helsinki in the early 2000s, this perceptive play depicts the arc of a relationship from falling in love with the oatmeal-flavoured everyday life of a rainbow family. The play is based on Laura Lehtola’s novel of the same name (2020), which she has dramatised and written into a play together with director Milja Sarkola .
Hoas’ shared apartment brings together two very different young women, Elisa, a low-key business student who has moved from the countryside to the city, and Saara, a bohemian student of literary studies. Contrary to expectations, the women fall in love with each other, and twelve years later they have a young son and a mortgage. Then Saara falls in love again.
The cast includes Wenla Reimaluoto (Saara), Misa Lommi (Elisa), Vappu Nalbantoglu, Pyry Nikkilä, Unto Nuora, Hanna Raiskinmäki and Kaisa Torkkel.
On 12 October, the autumn on the small stage will continue with the fantasy adventure My Friend the Pelican for the whole family. Paula Salminen’s new dramatisation of Leena Krohn’s novel In Human Clothes tells the story of the encounter of two strangers in a large city, a surprising friendship, homesickness, humanity and the relationship between man and nature. The wise play about the wonder of life is directed by award-winning Irene Aho , and the main roles are played by Ylermi Rajamaa, Elias Salonen and Inkeri Hyvönen.
Studio Pasila’s autumn season begins with Leea Klemola and Rosa-Maria Perä’s adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s play Dangerous Relationships on 28 September. The author duo transfers the original story, events and characters from the social circles of 18th-century France to a church-sponsored Finnish theatre struggling with financial difficulties.
Raili Wahlman is coming to direct The Old Testament and wants Rauno de Tourvell to play Satan at the theatre. As a result of the intrigues of Wahlman and the theatre director Mertanen, Wahlman begins to seduce Tourvell into agreeing to play the role. The problems start when real love intervenes.
The play is directed by Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen and stars Riitta Havukainen, Merja Larivaara, Antti Virmavirta, Eija Vilpas, Pertti Koivula, Juha Jokela, Sari Haapamäki and Mikko Virtanen.
The Stage of Contemporary Performance pilot project, which will be seen at Studio Pasila in 2022 and 2023, will bring various forms of contemporary performance into the Helsinki City Theatre’s repertoire. The stage of the contemporary performance begins its operations by bringing guest performances from artist-game designer Harold Hejaz, Heidi and Kaino Wennerstrand’s artist duo Biitsi, visual artist Ignacio Pérez Pérez and choreographer Eeva Juutinen to its repertoireMay 19–27. In August 2022, the programme will include the first premieres of the Contemporary Performance stage: Encounters of the Helsinki Feminist Secret Society, Sara Grotenfelt’s Last Hurrah and Kati Korosuo’s The Artist Is at Home.
On 15 September, the Finnish premiere of My Fantastic Friend (2019), based on Elena Ferrante’s beloved Naples series, will take place on the Swedish-language stage of Lilla Teatern. The play, based on the best-selling novels by Italy’s most important contemporary author, was written by April de Angelis. The play, translated by Johanna Hedenberg, is directed by Riikka Oksanen.
My Fantastic Friend tells the story of a strong and turbulent friendship between two talented girls, Lenù and Lila , a shared desire to get out of the war-torn Neapolitan childhood neighborhood, and a rebellion against the narrow roles set by community and society. In the journey of Lenù and Lila, the play travels from the early 1950s to the 2010s through the social upheavals in Italy.
The cast includes Pia Andersson (Lenù), Cecilia Paul (Lila), Lumi Aunio, Peter Kanerva, Sanna Majuri, Pia Runnakko, Ursula Salo, Rasmus Slätis, Alexander Wendelin and Joachim Wigelius. The performance will be subtitled in Finnish and Swedish.
Lillan’s autumn season continues with the premiere of the first performance based on Tove Jansson’s original comics, Kris och katastrof i Moominalen, which premieres on 1 October. The idea, direction and choreography of the performance are the responsibility of Lilla Teatern’s artistic director Jakob Höglund. The comics drawn by Tove Jansson and her brother Lars Jansson between 1954 and 1975 for the British newspaper The Evening News are dramatised by Annina Enckell. The show is aimed at adults, just like the comic. Subtitles are available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
In the autumn season, the City Theatre’s repertoire continues with the musical adventure for the whole family, Tatu and Patu on the big stage in Helsinki, and the love story Silent Bridges, starring Merja Larivaara and Kari Heiskanen, on the small stage. Club act!one, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, will continue at Studio Pasila, and the ever-popular Stones in Your Pocket performances will move from Pasila to the larger Arena stage in the autumn. The Senior Soup events, praised by the public, will also continue in the autumn.
Read the new Theatre Extra here.
Next premieres at the Helsinki City Theatre
23.4.2022 God is Beauty, dir. Kristian Smeds
10.5.2022 Raging Armistice, dir. Rasmus Slätis
9.8.2022 Stage of a contemporary performance – Double bill: Helsinki Feminist Secret Society: Encounters and Sara Grotenfelt: Last Hurrah
23.8.2022 Stage of a contemporary performance – Kati Korosuo: The Artist Is at Home
25.8.2022 Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, dir. Samuel Harjanne
8.9.2022 Kultalampi, dir. Tuomo Aitta
15.9.2022 My amazing friend, dir. Riikka Oksanen
22.9.2022 I Chose You, dir. Milja Sarkola
28.9.2022 Dangerous Relationships, dir. Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen
1.10.2022 Moominvalley Crisis and Disaster, dir. Jakob Höglund
12.102022 My Friend the Pelican, dir. Irene Aho
Stage of Contemporary Performance – guest performances 19.5. – 28.5.2022
19.-21.5.2022 Harold Hejazi: The Adventures of Harriharri – Episode 3
20.-22.5.2022 Beach: Silver
19.-28.5.2022 Ignacio Pérez Pérez: The Longest Journey
27.-28.5.2022 Eeva Juutinen: olO
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