A Theatre Academy student production to be featured at the international Fast Forward Festival
Each year, a handful of young European directors get an invitation to the Fast Forward Festival. One of the young talents selected this year was Pauli Patinen, who graduated from Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy in spring 2025. This is the second time ever that a Finnish director’s production was selected to the programme.
The production Steal This Performance by the Finnish director Pauli Patinen is one of the eight performances that will be seen at the Fast Forward Festival 2025. Each year, the festival in Dresden, Germany, selects a small group of interesting young European directors and invites them to stage their performances at the festival. Patinen’s production can be seen at the festival on 13 and 14 November.
Steal This Performance premiered on 26 March 2024 at Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy, and it was part of Pauli Patinen’s (b. 1993) master’s thesis project. Patinen graduated from the Degree Programme in Dramaturgy and Playwriting in spring 2025. The production also served as the thesis project of scenography student Anni Hernetkoski, lighting design student Ville Tolvanen and sound design student Axel Ridberg.
Steal This Performance has a seemingly simple premise: all material used in the performance has been stoled, copied or plagiarised from previous and existing productions. Besides dealing with questions of creativity, art and artistic work, the performance challenges the audience to reflect on their views on originality, authenticity and uniqueness in general.
Getting an invitation to the Fast Forward Festival is a rare honour: Pauli Patinen is only the second Finnish director to get their production featured at the festival. The first one was Minna Lund, who directed the play Message from Tyler – Memento Mori, Cherry Orchard, which was part of the festival programme in 2023. Lund directed the play as her master’s thesis project at the Theatre Academy.
Fast Forward – European Festival for Young Stage Directors is a four-day festival founded in 2011. It turns the spotlight on young European directors and showcases the diversity of contemporary theatre. Fast Forward was originally set up at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, and since 2017, it has taken place at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden.
An international jury selects one of the invited eight directors as the festival winner, and the prize entails an invitation to a working residency in Dresden. A separate young jury prize and an audience award will also be announced.