Superlon soft contemporary puppet show Whatever Love Means shatters stereotypes of falling in love
Whatever Love Means, a new work by the top creators of contemporary puppetry, will premiere at the Helsinki City Theatre’s studio Pasila on 7 August. The performance has been carried out at the Contemporary Performance Stage’s summer residency.
The stage work Whatever Love Means takes the audience to reflect on all the things that affect our perceptions of love. In the performance, the cryptic mystery of falling in love is solved by a group of cupids lost in endless footnotes as well as by a person cursing the great love story of his own life. The feather-light and funny work fills its stage with soft foam simulations of love, and at the same time awakens the viewer to think about how to break stereotypes related to falling in love and love.
“It’s amazing to be able to bring such a collection of love, wonderful new text, and all of it interpreted by the best actors in the world, at least in my opinion, puppets. I believe that our chubby, sympathetic group of cupidos in all their foam will consult the viewer’s brain and heart cells into a slightly new position,” says Merja Pöyhönen, the director of the work.
Behind the performance is a working group called Royal Hattara, which consists of top names in contemporary Finnish puppetry. The work is written by playwright Taija Helminen, and the original idea for the performance was written by Merja Pöyhönen, Essi Santala and Riina Tikkanen, who are known from the working group of the acclaimed Leda performance.
Whatever Love Means premieres on August 7, 2024 at Studio Pasila (Ratamestarinkatu 3).
Tickets: basic ticket €25, student ticket €12.50 (Mon-Thu) and pensioner ticket €22 (Mon-Thu)
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The performance has been carried out at the Contemporary Performance Stage’s summer residency. The stage will bring various forms of contemporary performance into the Helsinki City Theatre’s repertoire. The stage is supported by Kone Foundation in 2024–2025.
Helsinki City Theatre’s ticket sales and customer service by phone (09) 394022 Mon-Fri 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ticket offices from 29 July: First line 2, Mon-Fri 12-16, Eläintarhantie 5, always one hour before the performance and Lippu.fi, Mon-Sat 9-21, Sun 10-18, tel. 0600 900 900 (2 €/min + local network charge) www.hkt.fiFurther information, media ticket reservations and interview requests:
Communications and Marketing Manager Emmi Linnankivi, 050 440 1612
Helsinki City Theatre, Ensi linja 2, 00530 Helsinki