The 2021 Tampere Theatre Festival is especially dedicated to Finnish theatre
12.5.2021
The 2021 Tampere Theatre Festival is scheduled for August 2–8. The majority of this year’s lineup are domestic theatre companies. All Finnish entries in the Main Programme will be performed live on stage in Tampere with restrictions on audience sizes.
In the words of Hilkka-Liisa Iivanainen and Tanjalotta Räikkä, the festival’s artistic team, ”This is not theatre staggering to its feet after the pandemic. This is an outstanding variety of performances ranging from rebellious and rugged to delicate and dashing, and a brilliant showcase of the artists’ endless imagination, comedic prowess and creative talent.”
Tampere Theatre Festival is Scandinavia’s biggest and longest-running theatre festival. The 2021 selection highlights Finnish theatre and features thirteen domestic productions and one foreign entry.
A one-two combo from Turku
Turku City Theatre will be dropping by to deliver their ravishing rendition of one of the greatest musicals of all time, Cabaret, helmed by visionary director Jakob Höglund and performed by a cast of close to thirty performers.
Also from Turku, director Juho Mantere brings us Conan, My Love, a dark comedy about school bullying, acceptance and forgiveness.
Coming in hot from the nation’s capital
The Helsinki-based Aurinkoteatteri and writer-director Sanna Hietala take us far beyond the highest brows of high culture and into the long-lost world of stable girls with Stable Women.
Teater Viirus and director Jussi Sorjanen stage a play that was written by Joakim Pirinen a while back in the ’80s but seems ominously familiar today. The Good Family is a dystopian story set in a bunker where an isolated family goes on with their seemingly perfect life.
The lead characters of Bouvard and Pécuchet have only two things on their mind: the complexity of the world and searching for the truth. This piece by Takomo Theatre and dramatist-director Tuomas Rinta-Panttila is based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert.
Choreographer Kati Raatikainen’s Quartet makes a tenderly radical statement about the right to perform as a dance artist and a member of society when you’re regarded as a person with a disability.
Saddle up, pardner!
Teaming up with the Finnish National Theatre and riding through marginal and mainstream culture with guns blazing, the Delta Venus outfit, founded by actor-director Sara Melleri, takes the stage with The Betty Show.
The Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and Q-teatteri present writer-director Ona Korpiranta’s MA thesis piece, The Day God Created Fathers, a survival story performed by a group of next-generation talents.
Written and performed by sisters Seidi & Ruusu Haarla and co-produced with the KOM Theatre and TEHDAS Theatre, A New Childhood sets out to rediscover a lost period of life that was once buried under trauma.
Created by the Tamperean tandem of Mira Taussi and Mikko Bredenberg, Rooms by the Sea is a visual theatre piece inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper (1882–1967). The performances take place at the Vooninki venue in the historical Finlayson factory area.
West Coast in the house
The Pori-based Rakastajat Theatre brings us Black, Blacker, Roma. Elina Izarra’s play sheds light on the history and day-to-day life of the Roma by blending fact and fiction with personal experiences.
What are the chances of achieving one’s goals in a divided society? Kokkola City Theatre cuts to the core of Väinö Linna’s 1947 literary debut Aim. The adaptation by dramatist-director Juha Luukkonen was premiered in 2020 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth.
Vaasa City Theatre’s Love?! Eek! Yikes! Yuck!, directed by Taina Mäki-Iso, is a family-friendly show where the mystery of love sets the stage for movement, music and comedy.
Live from Budapest – Proton Theatre’s Imitation of Life
This year’s foreign entry is a cinematic spectacle that will be streamed live from Budapest to the Tampere Hall.
Based on actual events and directed by Kornél Mundruczó, Imitation of Life deals with marginalization and inequality while commenting on the changes in Hungarian society.
Moving towards a live festival while keeping an eye on the pandemic
Our aim is to provide the safest possible meeting ground for artists and audiences. When it’s festival time in August, it’s still up to the Finnish government and local authorities to make the crucial decisions regarding public gatherings.
”We are staying up-to-date and prepared,” says executive director Hanna Rosendahl. ”We have strong faith in having another stellar event to launch the fall season of Finnish theatre.”
Tickets are available from May 11 at Lippupiste and the Tampere Theatre Festival box office.
More info:
Hanna Rosendahl, Executive director
tel. +358 40 594 4600 | hanna.rosendahl(at)teatterikesa.fi
Additional information and artistic team interview requests:
Tiina Hurskainen, Head of PR and marketing
tel. +358 40 865 5852 | tiina.hurskainen(at)teatterikesa.fi