Breaking Language Barriers
16.6.2017
You don’t speak Finnish? No worries, we have performances suitable also for you!
Performances Suitable for English-speaking Audiences
Tampere Theatre Festival will be organized for the 49th time on 7–13th of August 2017. This year’s programme is dedicated to the ignored, the deported, the othered and the forgotten. Many of the performances ponder on how communities are formed, and who will fit in? The Festival has once again plenty to offer also for non-Finnish-speaking audiences: Three of the Finnish productions are subtitled in English, as are some of our international performances. Furthermore, four shows are performed in English and one in ”Broken English”. We have listed the performances suitable for English-speaking audiences below, but keep posted, there might be more performances suitable for English-speaking audiences to come!
Finnish Performances with English Subtitles
Tom of Finland musical draws a picture of Touko Laaksonen and his rise to fame as Tom of Finland. The drawings of his erotic fantasies were so authentic that they helped millions of men find their sexuality.
Performed in Finnish, subtitled in English.
Casanova, My Wife is Leea Klemola's painfully funny portrait of shame and lust, the will to live and the oh-so-human need for approval.
Performed in Finnish, subtitled in English.
The Deported by The Rakastajat Theatre reveals the process leading to a deportation decision and the consequences of an enforced removal.
Performed in Finnish, subtitled in English.
Sidekicks by Alma Lehmuskallio is a contemporary circus production that deals with the fate of being sidelined and ignored.
Performed in Finnish, subtitled in English.
Performances in English
In Fruits of Labor Belgian artist Miet Warlop dazzles her audience with a fabulous mix of performance and installation art, poetry and a rock concert.
Performed in English.
World Without Us is a monologue about what happens when there are no more people and the traces of civilization begin to disappear. This work by the acclaimed Belgian collective Ontroerend Goed is a meditative prediction combining science with fiction and philosophy.
Performed in English.
Father Fucker by the HYPE collective deconstructs the myth of the male artist with a combination of live installation, music, stage poetry and dance.
Performed in English.
Performances Suitable for Everyone Regardless of Language
Protagonist is raw and intense but at heart a hopeful look at human nature and the importance of belongingness. It is a work of the imaginative Cullberg Ballet, the most famous Swedish contemporary dance company in the world.
In his newest work, just filming, director Kristian Smeds pairs two master performers (Annamária Láng and Juhán Ulfsak) to talk about film, to act out cinematic scenes and to watch movies while popcorn literally fills the stage.
Performed in Broken English and Broken Finnish.
The dance piece Noble Savage by Sonya Lindfors and Zodiak (The Center for New Dance) shakes the power structures of society and tears down stereotypes. It is a collaboration of six Afro-Finnish artists.
Performed in multiple languages (including English).
A Taste of Other Languages in Theatre
People Respect Me Now is a powerful, critically acclaimed play by the Swedish Lumor Theatre. It examines the issue of school violence.
Performed in Swedish, subtitled in Finnish and English.
Burning Doors takes a strong stand against the deprivation of the right to self-expression. The performance by Belarus Free Theatre is based on the firsthand accounts of, among others, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and Pussy Riot member and activist Maria Alyokhina.
Performed in Russian and Belarusian, subtitled in Finnish.
In Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God by Svenska Teatern, a welcoming dinner reunites two couples. Frank and Liz have been maintaining a glamorous lifestyle back home, while doctors Karin and Martin have spent years abroad, doing relief work in Sub-Saharan Africa battling the HIV epidemic.
Performed in Swedish, subtitled in Finnish.
You are also welcome to see performances that do not come with English subtitles. For example, the Finnish puppet collective, Aura of Puppets, has made a new interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet.
We also offer synopses written in English that will help you follow the storylines! You can pick the synopses up at the venues, or print them out from our website, under the Main Programme. The synopses are in the info boxes after the performance descriptions: Arctic Hysteria, Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God, Military, My Love, The Predators, Sidekicks.