How to get to Tampere?

DEGREE PROGRAMME IN THEATRE ARTS (NÄTY) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE & TELEPORTATION MACHINE COMPANY

Consept and design Eeva Rajakangas and Vilma Sippola; performed by Vilma Sippola; directed by Eeva Rajakangas

How to get to Tampere? is a performance created due to the need to get local in this attractive city, or just to get further than the railway station, away from the space between.

For two days and one night, an idea of being a local in Tampere and living in Tampere by OneTiredTraveler is created in the window of Tampere Railway Station. Every passer-by is invited to experience this fantasy of Tampere for five minutes – or for the whole 33 hours. One can arrive e.g. on Saturday at 12 am and come back on Sunday evening. The performance invites everyone passing through the railway station to stop for a moment by the themes of loneliness, connection and localness.

For this performance, two types of interviews have been collected. Locals have been asked to tell directions of how to get to Tampere. Often the first answer is that ”you are already here!”. However, being a local in Tampere is a state of mind that cannot be unraveled in the blink of an eye. It is a protest against hurry and self-importance. It is a local identity and one needs courage to ask for help and to be idler. You know that you have it in you when the time comes.

But that OneTiredTraveler from Helsinki cannot wait anymore, they want to go to Tampere. Now. During travels through Europe OneTiredTraveler has interviewed people who don’t know what Tampere is and has asked the interviewees to explain what they think Tampere is.

The persons behind this performance are Vilma Sippola (NÄTY, Degree Programme in Theatre Arts), a Helsinkian dreaming of being a local in Tampere, and Eeva Rajakangas (TEAK, Degree Programme in Theatre Arts), a former Tampere citizen who recently moved to Helsinki. They are aching to know what kind of performances we need in this time, when the meanings of home and local identity are going through big changes.