Theatre Academy Helsinki 2018

KÄSITTELYAIKA

director

Käsittelyaika was the artistic work for my bachelor’s degree at our university. It was performed in one of the studio stages of ouf university. It was a collaboration with the playwright and a dramaturgy student Ella Kähärä. The play was written by her and she also working as a performer in this production.

The main character is a young female who is depressed dramaturgy student and now she is having a summer holiday from school and trying to manage with her anxiety. The name Käsittelyaika refers to the time it takes for the finnish social insurance institution to process the application for toimeentulotuki which is a money that you get from the government if you have no jobs, no student loan or anything else to live with. So the character has applied for the money because she has nothing to live with. And the process takes seven days which se mainly spends at her apartment which is surrounded by façade renovation and the constant noice of it.

The text is mainly spoken by one main character but I decided to divide the main character to three persons which is performed by the three actors.

The text and the performance deals with questions of the meaning of the life, why are we here in the end anyway? It deals with questions about religion and faith and capitalism. It is quite and existential piece.

The performance ends with a 40minute concert with songs we composed based on text from the play. The play had an essay text part with 10 pages of text which we turned into songs. The whole working group is involved there. I even ended rapping on stage and the scenographer is playing violin on the final song.

Working group: 

Text (and costume designer): Ella Kähärä

Director: Joel Härkönen

Scenographer: Ruusa Johansson

Sound designer: Onni Pirkola

On stage: Veera Herranen, Elviira Kujala, Jutta Järvinen and the working group.