Baltic Circle is an international contemporary theatre festival that takes place every November in Helsinki, both in theatre venues and on different sites in the city. Baltic Circle functions in the context of European contemporary performing arts, and is a platform for developing new trends and ideas. Baltic Circle presents new talents of contemporary theatre as well as organizes training programs, seminars, workshops, discussions and club events. It is a meeting point and full-service festival where artists and audiences come together to explore art and enjoy the luxury of inspiring festival atmosphere.
A big thanks to all absolutely amazing artists, staff, volunteers, audience, partners and participants who made the festival of 2011!
The international theatre festival Baltic Circle 2011 attracted a larger audience than in previous years. The festival featured 50 performances and other events, attended by 3555 spectators in all – which is more than ever.
At the festival there were five premieres, which were produced or international co-produced by Baltic Circle. Three of these productions have started touring abroad. The Festival Lounge offered every night awesome and free shows at the Universum theatre.
Baltic Circle Festival Additional Programme included four workshops, a panel debate The Role of Audience in Contemporary Performance, a book release by performance group Kukkia and a seminar Touring in Scandinavia and the Baltics, which was organized together with the Theatre Touring Network Project TEKIJĂ„.
The next Baltic Circle Festival will be held in November 7-11, 2012.
This year artists arrive from Finland, Norway, Austria, Russia, USA, Iceland and Estonia. The heart of the festival Festival Lounge offers every night 16.-20.11.2011 awesome and free shows.
TICKET SALES Q-teatteri
Tunturikatu 16, 00100 Helsinki
Tel. Â +358 9 4542 1333
Q-teatteri opening hours during the festival week:
ma 14.11. 10:00-15:00
ti 15.11. 11:00-15:00
ke 16.11. 10:00-19.00
to 17.11. 10:00-19.30
pe 18.11. 10:00-19.30
la 19.11. 12:00-19:00
su 20.11. 12:00-18:00
Ticket Service Finland
Tel. +358 (0)600 10 800 (1,96€/min + local network charge) www.lippupalvelu.fi
Tickets are sold at the venues 1 hour before the perfomance, if it’s not sold out.
Fat Bastards is a girls’ attempt to grasp the essence of ice-hockey through an off-the-wall lecture. It is a do-it-yourself performance about passion, repulsion and creative destruction. “Football is erotic, ice-hockey is porn.”
Journalist Martti Mäkelä (Skenet 2.11.) interviewed Jakob Ă–hrman, the director of Nya Rampen’s new performance WORSHIP!
WORSHIP! will be premiered at Baltic Circle Festival November 16th. In the performance Nya Rampen takes hold of the most renowned plays of all time, taking a look at mortal sins trough Shakespeare’s tragedies. WORSHIP! examines the characteristic human need to believe in and belong to something, be it a religion, an ideology or art. Nya Rampen ponders why fiction such as Shakespeare’s tragedies still reaches audiences. Do we need stories in order to understand reality?
Baltic Circle invites you to the Festival Brunch Sat 19.11. & Sun 20.11. where you can enjoy delicious food and drinks, meet new people and old friends as well as recover from the previous night’s celebrations at Festival Lounge. Buffet and a glass of sparkling wine guarantee a perfect start for the weekend’s festival experience!
During the Festival Brunch you are welcomed to visit Johanna Lecklin’s live-ar t installation Confessions in the lobby of Puoli-Q Theatre where you can reveal your darkest or funniest secrets. After the brunch you can see the performance Build Me a Mountain! by Verk Produksjoner (NO R) at Q-teatteri at 2pm.
Festival Brunch
19.11. & 20.11. 12:00-14:00
Q-teatteri, Tunturikatu 16
10€
Food tickets can be purchased in advance from Q-teatteri or Lippupalvelu (Ticket Service Finland).
Q-teatteri
Tel. Â +358 9 4542 1333 (Tue-Fri 11:00-15:00)
Ticket Service Finland
Tel. +358 (0)600 10 800 (1,96€/min + local network charge) www.lippupalvelu.fi
Finnish music magazine Sue reported about the Fat Bastards performance at Baltic Circle Festival and the collaboration between musicians Emily Cheeger, Juho Alajuuma and the directors Anni Ojanen and Hili Iivanainen.
Baltic Circle Festival offers free bus transport to Festival Lounge from Suvilahti, Media Centre Lume and Cabel Factory after the last performances of the day. Please see departure times from the links below.
Once again in November Nya Rampen challenges preconceptions about what theatre should be through seeking new means of expression from other fields of art. Worship!, premiered at Baltic Circle Festival, examines the characteristic human need to believe in and belong to something, be it a religion, an ideology or art.
The clothes of the BALTIC RE-CIRCLE fashion collection can now be purchased at the design and art store Myymälä2 in the center of Helsinki and also in November at the Baltic Circle Festival.
Milja Nevalainen and Hannele Äijälä from School of Art and Design have designed the redesign clothing collection of Baltic Circle Festival.
Tsto Agency has designed a BALTIC RE-CIRCLE label that can be seen in the clothes inspired by the colorful days of Twin Peaks, black coffee, cherry pie – jazz and the darkness of the night.
Verk Produksjoner’s The Eternal Smile (Det eviga leendet) has won the Norwegian Hedda Prize for the best performance of the year 2011. The jury finds the performance among other things meaningful, clever and philosophical.
The Hedda Prizes are presented annually for significant achievements in Norwegian theatre.
Read more about the prize here. (the information is in Norwegian)
Verk Produksjoner’s new performance Build Me a Mountain! will be premiered at the Baltic Circle Festival in November.
The programme of Baltic Circle Festival for this year is now published and tickets are for sale. In addition to international guest performances the festival features international co-productions and performances produced by Baltic Circle. These performances put on stage the emerging artists and new trends of performance art at the moment. At the festival there are five premieres, which are produced or international co-produced by Baltic Circle. Festival takes place in Helsinki from 16th to 20th November. Get your tickets now!
This time it’s personal
The festival presents a new international generation of theatre artists as well as several rising talents of the Finnish performance art. Baltic Circle Festival includes a number of performances, which take their inspirations from personal experiences, comment on the role of art and take part in social issues through art. As Festival Director Eva Neklyaeva puts it “This time it’s about reclaiming the stage. This time it’s personal.”
Conte D’Amourby the two groups Institutet and Nya Rampen and Berlin-based director Markus Öhrn was selected as the best off-theatre production at the Impulse Festival 2011 in Düsseldorf. As a resultConte D’Amourwill be shown at next year’s Berliner Theatertreffen and at the Wiener Festwochen as well as the Polish Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatraine Festival.
Baltic Circle is one of the international co-producers of Conte D’Amour and it was presented at Baltic Circle Festival 2010. Nya Rampen’s newest production Worship! will be shown at Baltic Circle Festival in November 2011. Worship! is a co-production of Nya Rampen, Baltic Circle and Nordwind Festival (GER).
The Norwegian theatre company Verk Production visits Helsinki and Tampere in August. Verk is working at artist residence at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre at the University of Tampere. The residence period will be from 8th to 12th of August. The premiere of Verk’s new performance Build Me A Mountain! will be at Baltic Circle Festival in November. Baltic Circle is one of the producers of this international co-production.
The starting point of Build Me A Mountain! is the historical meeting of two renowned authors Hella Wuolijoki and Bertolt Brecht during the 1940 peace. Verk Production together with Danish playwright Daniel Wedel has found diaries, letters, stories and plays written by Wuolijoki and Brecht. Build Me A Mountain! combines documentary material and fiction to bring up the still current issue that was the main question Wuolijoki and Brecht examined: “the art of being human in an inhumane and complicated world.”
Summer is starting, but Baltic Circle Festival is already looking towards the upcoming autumn. Baltic Circle Festival takes place from 16th to 20th November and the programme is due to be completed soon In addition to international guest performances the festival will be featuring international co-productions and performances produced by Baltic Circle. The festival includes a number of premieres starring the new generation of theatre artists.
To celebrate the summer’s arrival to Finland, Baltic Circle wants to publish some of the highlights of the 2011 programme. Detailed information and photos of the performances are now available on Baltic Circle’s website!
The complete programme will be published at the end of August. Baltic Circle Festival will take place in Helsinki both in and out of theatre venues. Known as a meeting point for artists and audience, Baltic Circle offers an opportunity to be impressed by new talents and phenomena of contemporary theatre and to participate in seminars and workshops as well as party until morning every night at the Festival Lounge!
During the 1940 peace, writers Hella Wuolijoki and Bertolt Brecht who was exiled from Germany were sitting on the terrace of the Marlebäck mansion drinking coffee and discussing world peace. They were optimistic, telling stories to each other and creating a utopia in the midst of Europe that was burning. Read more
Nya Rampen takes hold of the most renowned plays of all time, taking a look at mortal sins trough Shakespeare’s tragedies while wearing panty-hose. What does Nietzsche’s famous quote “God is dead” mean to the modern world that is struggling in a chaos after the humanistic era? Read more
Baltic Circle is proudly announcing that the Baltic Circle Kick-Off Club for the year 2011 is taking place tomorrow, 13th of May at Club YK in Helsinki! Baltic Circle Club enriches the club culture in Helsinki by presenting new, international music stars in addition to stunning performance shows.
BALTIC CIRCLE CLUB
13.5.2011
21-04 (K20)
Club YK
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 21, Helsinki
Tickets: 12€, Presale: www.tiketti.fi
Programme:
22.00 Minä ja Ville Ahonen
23.30 JOKAklubi (FIN/GER)
00.30 IIRIS (EST)
01.30 HANG THE DJ: ANTTI H & SAMI
Baltic Circle Festival starts the year 2011by organizing a club evening on Friday 13 May at Club YK in Helsinki. In addition to magnificent artists and performance art Baltic Circle presents a new redesign clothing collection. Last Autumn Baltic Circle was the first theatre festival to launch an own fashion collection designed by Milja Nevalainen (Taik). The collection gets an expected addition in the spring and summer patterns.
Tsto Agency’s Graphic Designer Johannes Ekholm has designed a BALTIC RE-CIRCLE label that is now seen in colorful dresses, shirts, pants, scarves and baby overalls. The trendiest redesign fashion of this summer will be on sale at Baltic Circle Club!
Talented leading actors Elena Leeve and Eero Ritala together with baby Veikko are starring the BALTIC RE-CIRCLE collection. Photographer: Tani Simberg
Baltic Circle Festival makes a kick start to the year 2011 and organizes a club evening May 13th at YK-klubi in Helsinki. Baltic Circle Club enriches the club culture in Helsinki by presenting new, international music stars in addition to stunning performance shows.
IIRIS by: Kristjan Lepp
IIRIS
The international guest artist of the evening is Estonian singer-songwriter Iris Vesik. With her captivating personal sound and energetic live performance IIRIS has been compared to Kate Bush and is now a rising star of Estonian electronic pop. IIRIS is working on a debut album that combines pop, rock, unique innovations, the synthetic and classical piano, electronic soundscapes and catchy pop melodies. Year 2010 IIRIS gave concerts in Finland, Turkey, Latvia and two performances at The International Music Business Market Popkomm. The winner of the public vote of Tallinn Music Week has performed also in the opening ceremony of European Capital of Culture, Tallinn 2011 -event.
Minä ja Ville Ahonen
Baltic Circle Club presents also a rising star of Finnish music, Minä ja Ville Ahonen. The band released their debut album Autumn 2010. It was praised by critics and got a lot of attention in the Finnish music circles and in the media. Songs composed by Ahonen and written together with Jussi Moila create a very beautiful and melancholic atmosphere that combines sometimes even cheerful dance beats. Minä ja Ville Ahonen crosses the boarders of music genres and manages to create texts that form into small plays.
Minä ja Ville Ahonen by: Hanna Käyhkö
JOKAklubi
Established by Niina Lehtonen-Braun, Mirka Raito and Tellervo Kalleinen, JOKAklubi is a sovereign perfomance group combining music, arts and performance. Their projects are breaking out from their interest to create surprising visuals into even more surprising situations. Their sharp humour is playing big part in the shows – touching absurd sides of human life. During THE ENDS performance at Baltic Circle Club audience has a change to create “the end credits of their life’s”.
JOKAklubi by: Maija BlĂĄfield
Reality Research Center
At Baltic Circle Club Reality Research Center will carry out their TheftProject that explores the potential forms of aesthetic stealing. Unexpected situations can be expected!
BALTIC CIRCLE CLUB
13.5.2011
21-04 (K20)
YK-klubi
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 21, Helsinki
Tickets: 12€, Presale: www.tiketti.fi
“Estonia’s IIRIS has the eclecticism, the smarts, the innovation, the pop sound, not to mention the adorable image to become a huge mega star.” Halley / MTV Iggy READ MORE
See IIRIS live at Baltic Circle Club May 13th at YK-klubi, Helsinki!
BALTIC CIRCLE 2010 thanks everybody who made our festival unforgettable.Â
The International Theatre Festival Baltic Circle 2010 featured 67 performances and other events, attended by 2 457 spectators in all. The festival was organised by Q-teatteri in co-operation with KokoTeatteri, Universum, Theatre Info Finland, and HIAP – Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme.
The festival supporters are City of Helsinki Cultural Office, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish Cultural Foundation, EU Culture Programme, Nordic Culture Point, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the Finnish-Swedish Cultural Foundation, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, British Council, Netherlands Embassy in Finland, and Ars Baltica.
Next Baltic Circle festival will be held in November 16–20, 2011.
Simon Will talks about Gob Squad and Super Night Shot performance with Nina Ruotsalainen from Soffa.tv. Check out what happens when Gob Squad launches a war on autonomy in Helsinki 19.-20.11. at Baltic Circle Festival! SOFFA.TV
Boring festival T-shirts are out. Baltic Circle is the first theatre festival which has an own fashion collection from recycled clothes. Festival is selling recycled clothes and accessories with a “BALTIC-RE-CIRCLE Second Hand Clothing” -label designed by graphic designer Johannes Ekholm. The collection includes for example retro patterns, eighties coats, different kind of shirts, shorts, scarves and baby clothes. The collection is on sale at Festival Lounge every evening from 17. to 21. November starting at 9pm. Recycled clothes project was implemented by Milja Nevalainen and Hannele Ă„ijälä (Taik). Baltic Circle Festival wants to thank Suvi Saloniemi from the Kunsthalle who gave the idea for the project. Read more
Baltic Circle Festival presents performance CONTE D’AMOUR created by two theater groups, Swedish INSTITUTET and Finnish NYA RAMPEN. The performance is an international co-production created in co-operation with Ballhaus Ost (Berlin), Inkonst (Malmö) and Baltic Circle. Conte D’ Amour is a theatrical investigation of the grotesque case of Joseph Fritzl. The premiere was at May in Berlin and the performance takes place 17-18 November at 6pm at Korjaamo as a part of Baltic Circle Festival.
Finnish journalist of Helsingin Sanomat, Maria Säkö visited Berlin to see the performance: ”Conte D’Amour is delightful – its artful acting is complimented by the combination of modern media art and theatre”. (HS 16.5.2010.) Read the interesting Finnish article:  “Joseph Fritzl onkin jokamies”.
Famous Dutch group DOOD PAARD visits Finland for the first time at Baltic Circle Festival. Theater collective was founded 17 years ago and is very accomplished on the international theater field. Dood Paard has performed on many international theater festivals. Baltic Circle Festival will present two of their performances in November.
MEDEIA is a contemporary version of the Medea myth about love and its many truths and lies. The text is interlaced with lyrics of American and English pop songs. These lyrics are, like Greek mythology, part of our collective memory.
Fri 19.11. at 8pm
Mediakeskus Lume, Hämeentie 135
20/15 €
In the ANSWER ME five interrogators with kitschy costumes want to hear the truth they say they already know – they just want to hear the words from prisoner’s mouth. In the performance language turns into an instrument of abuse.
Sat 20.11. at 8pm
Sun 21.11. at 7pm (meet the artists)
Mediakeskus Lume, Hämeentie 135
20/15 €
What kind of Baltic Circle would you like? Are you in the mood for a walk on the dark side of human mind or would you just like to spend a Sunday differently? Use these suggestions to plan your own route through the festival.
SUNDAY OFF
Brunch – Leif Holmstrand: Wearing the Territorial (Down) – Hans Rosenström: Three Apart – Reality Research Center: Three Little Sisters – Lounge
ON THE DARK SIDE
Dood Paard: Answer Me – Oblivia: Entertainment Island 3 – Teater 90º: Aniara – Lounge
TWISTED LOVE
Institutet & Nya Rampen: Conte D’Amour – Peeter Jalakas & Von Krahli Teater: Magic Flute – Dood Pard: medEia – Lounge
Photo: Tani Simberg
Photo: Andrea Brandt
Photo: Bjørn Moe
BALTIC CIRCLE CLUB
