The Tampere Theatre Festival Main Programme is out!
22.5.2025
Once again in August, Tampere Theatre Festival fills the downtown streets and venues with an outstanding selection of performing arts as Scandinavia’s biggest theatrical event takes over Finland’s true second city. This year’s Main Programme showcases nineteen productions, including international input from France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK. The 56th Tampere Theatre Festival is scheduled for August 4–10.
In addition to the five foreign productions, the festival plays host to a lively domestic lineup ranging from the Finnish National Theatre to Takomo Theatre, Q-teatteri, & Espoo Theatre and Teatteri Jurkka to the city theatres of Lappeenranta and Kuopio, and various creative teams and independent theatre groups such as Vauriomania and Helsinki 98. The festival’s home town is represented by Tampere Theatre, the TTT Theatre and the Väki Choir.
The selections have been made by the festival’s artistic team, Taija Helminen, Hilkka-Liisa Iivanainen and Tanjalotta Räikkä, with executive director Hanna Rosendahl. Their goal is a Main Programme that provides experiences and exhilaration for theatre lovers of all ages. In the words of the artistic team:
”This year’s Main Programme features productions where the subject matter, characters and presentations walk the line – the line between fulfillment and emptiness, law and morality, life and death. These diverse works are emotionally connected by shame and shamelessness, hope and warmth. They get on stage, walk through the city or rise from under the bridge. They have the tenacity and vitality of a weed springing up.”
International heavy hitters from the Netherlands and France
One of the Netherlands’ frontline dance companies of the past two decades, the ISH Dance Collective makes its maiden visit to Finland. Elements of Freestyle, a family-friendly spectacle directed by Marco Gerris, is a fusion of urban sports and art where breakdancing meets inline skating, freestyle basketball, skateboarding, BMX riding and freerunning. Kicking off the festival a few days ahead of schedule on Saturday, August 2, Elements of Freestyle is presented in collaboration with the Tampere Hall.
French-born author, director and visual artist Mohamed El Khatib’s documentary theatre projects give a voice to those who often go unheard. Based on interviews with senior citizens and produced by Zirlib, The Secret Lives of Old People introduces us to a group of 76- to 90-year-olds who share their experiences of love and desire.
Scottish artist Katy Baird presents an anarchic and uproarious solo piece, Get Off. Dubbed a queer performance legend, Baird brings us face to face with existential questions. What do we actually do with this so-called life?
Birdboy, by Irish choreographer Emma Martin, is a celebration of all outcasts and weirdos. Combining dance, sound and objects and starring dancer-performer Kévin Coquelard, Birdboy is suitable for all ages from schoolkids and young adults to grownups.
Lithuanian Dansema Dance Theatre specializes in dance theatre for children. Choreographed by Birutė Banevičiūtė and designed to include children with disabilities, the sensory-friendly World Without Eyes provides a safe space for its young audience to explore their surroundings. The production is part of the Lithuanian Culture in Tampere 2025 program, which showcases Lithuanian contemporary arts.
Domestic works that take us from the theatre to the streets and under the bridge
The Finnish National Theatre presents two productions. Writer-director Akse Pettersson’s Lessons for the Living is a serious comedy about the basic human feeling of being dumb. The award-winning Prima Facie by Suzie Miller is a monologue piece about sexual violence and power structures. Directed by Susanna Kuparinen and performed by Annika Poijärvi, the play had its Finnish premiere at the National Theatre in April 2024.
& Espoon Teatteri, the 2025 Theatre of the Year, brings us Minna Craucher, a musical written by Aino Pennanen, directed by Riikka Oksanen, and with music by Eeva Kontu. It tells the story of a controversial historical figure, a woman who made her way from poverty to being a socialite and a hostess of a famous literary salon.
Q-teatteri’s take on Crime and Punishment is a furious stage adaptation of literature’s greatest crime story. Director Esa-Matti Smolander drops a Dostoevsky character into today’s Helsinki.
Kuopio City Theatre and director Juha Hurme update Maiju Lassila’s novel Risen from the Dead with a playful adaptation where North Savonia mirrors the quarterly reports, options, schemes and bankruptcies of today’s financial market.
Haavemaa – A Savonian Mayhem by Vauriomania, a performing company founded in 2024, takes us to Mäyrävesi, a small town and its watering hole brought to life by director Juuso Timonen, actors Paavo Kääriäinen and Jonnakaisa Risto, and a vivid selection of grotesque puppets.
Takomo Theatre presents two enigmatic works: Noise, the third collaboration between actor Samuli Niittymäki and sound designer Tatu Nenonen, and I’ll Be Your Mirror by writer-director Ami Karvonen.
Co-produced by Teatteri Jurkka and Lappeenranta City Theatre, A.K.A. (Also Known As) shows us how racism and prejudice can destroy a young life. Directed by Tuomas Parkkinen, Carlos Orjuela lights up the stage in this monologue piece by Daniel J. Meyer.
The Helsinki 98 theatre company examines the question, ”What can art be after February 24, 2022?” The Last of the Soviets is based on Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s nonfiction book. A hit with audiences, it is the first installment in the company’s Alexievich Trilogy.
In They Say: Close the Borders, director Fiikka Forsman and an interdisciplinary creative team dig into historical records and research materials, dissecting the dark legacy of Finnish fascism. The festival presentation, co-produced by Telakka Theatre, is a shorter, burst-like slice from this work-in-progress. There will also be a panel discussion led by the researchers.
The festival gets some local flavor from three productions:
Tampere Theatre’s Tin Plate Angels turns downtown into a queer stage while taking the audience on a tour through the city and the history of its LGBTQ community from the 1930s to this day. Directed and performed by Arttu Soilumo.
At a skate park underneath the Ratina Bridge, the Tampere-based Väki Choir and musician-composer Petra Poutanen present Songs of Home, a story about inequality, homelessness, exclusion and the human need for shelter.
Directed by Marc Gassot, These Halcyon Days by Deirdre Kinahan depicts the slowly blossoming relationship between two seasoned human beings. The Finnish premiere of this prizewinning play was at the TTT Theatre in September 2024.
The music-filled TelttaLab lineup is also out. And stay tuned to all the admission-free street acts by the likes of The Kate & Pasi Duo. The full schedule of street events, additional info and showtimes will be announced in June.
Tickets on sale from May 8. Get yours at Lippu.fi and the Tampere Theatre Festival ticket office at Finlayson.
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