Theatre Academy performances take the audience on a cruise to Sweden and on a reform school visit
Student performances during the spring season include a musical called Homo Line based on a comic book, a drama called Männistön koti – yksi pelastui set in a reform school and Maratontanssit based on Horace McCoy’s classic novel. Over 20 theatre, dance and performance art pieces will premiere this spring term.
On 10 February, Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy will premiere a musical theatre production of Homo Line, which is based on a comic book with the same title by visual artist Edith Hammar.
“The performance will explore feelings of homesickness: about how it feels to get stuck in a loop between different dimensions and places; about how it is almost impossible to settle down anymore,” describes Professor of Acting (in Swedish) Aune Kallinen, who is responsible for the directing and stage adaptation of the production.
For a long time, Finnish sexual minorities have viewed a trip to Sweden as a symbol for the possibility of living an authentic life as who one is. But the homesickness does not go away, and Stockholm is not perfect, either. Gentrification and the threat of violence cannot be escaped – not in Stockholm or in Helsinki. The musical is set on Homo Line Glory, where various strange and wonderful holes between dimensions reveal traces of diverse utopias.
The performers are Swedish-speaking third-year acting students.
Battle for survival in a reform school
Another production coming up early this spring is Männistön koti – yksi pelastui, which shows what the Finnish child welfare system looks like through the eyes of a teenager using its services. Männistön koti – yksi pelastui is partially based on the personal experiences as a child welfare customer and resident of a reform school of the play’s playwright and director, Ismael Peura.
“The play depicts the struggle for survival of three teenagers who have been committed to care in a reform school and raises critical questions about the functionality, ethicality and resources of the system,” Peura explains.
The play will premiere on 6 March, and it is a joint production of the Theatre Academy and Q-teatteri. The performances constitute a part of directing student Ismael Peura’s artistic thesis project.
New dramatic literature
In early spring, the public will also be treated to performances that have been prepared during a course called From Material to Performance with students from various Theatre Academy degree programmes, with themes ranging from life amid normalised violence (Nimby) and teenaged student rebellion (Kärsimys ja ekstaasi).
The bachelor’s thesis projects will premiere in April. The performances are based on brand-new texts written by dramaturgy and playwriting students. Some of the topics this spring will be the over-politicised atmosphere of the Theatre Academy in the 1970s (Tiikeriooppera), space adventures (Space X) and family relations (Sex on the beach – Perhedraama).
Another April premiere will be the joint production of the Degree Programme in Acting (in Finnish) and the Helsinki City Theatre, Maratontanssit, which is based on Horace McCoy’s novel They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
The Theatre Academy’s season programme is published on the university website. All public events organised by the university can be browsed in the event calendar.