Finnish Focus

The Focus Programme of the Maribor Theatre Festival is once again erasing the borders and filling the gap in the international space, this year dedicated to Finnish dramatic literature and theatre. Each year, the literary collection Contemporary European Drama is also richer for another edition. This time, we have published the seventh collection, Contemporary Finnish Drama (edited by Alja Predan), which features translations of three contemporary plays selected by Alja Predan. The book will be presented on 23 October with introductory lectures by Alja Predan, editor; Hanna Helavuori, director of the Finnish organization TINFO - Theatre Info Finland; and Jukka Hyde Hytti (TINFO). On Tuesday, 24 October, the Focus Programme continues with two staged readings: A Little Money (S. Peltola) and These Little Town Blues are Melting Away (P. Lonka), followed by a conversation with the translator Julija Potrč. The Focus Programme concludes on Wednesday, 25 October, with the staged reading of Frozen Images (K. Smeds) and a conversation with the author Kristian Smeds and the translator Julija Potrč.

The Finnish Focus programme will be moderated by Rok Bizovičar. It will be conducted in English and will take place in its entirety on the First Stage of the First Grammar School Maribor. The director of the staged readings performed by the students of UL AGRFT is Dorian Šilec Petek.

The Finnish production Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe by sadsongscomplex:fi is also part of the Festival's International Programme (24 and 25 October, Small Stage of SNT Maribor), as well as the music-poetry project The Story of the Harp by Zvezdana Novaković (23–25 October, GT22).