27.05.2024
A celebration of renewal at Hangö Teaterträff
The 32nd Hangö Teaterträff takes place on 6–9 June 2024 in the unique archipelago environment of Hanko. The festival programme includes six premieres, domestic and international guest performances, a special programme for children and youths, and both club and discursive programmes.
“This year's programme is a celebration of renewal. Most of the works are created by young but experienced artists, all of whom have bold ideas about what theatre can look like – what the world can look like. These are significant proposals that really radiate vitality, despite the harsh conditions in the art and theatre field. We want the festival to offer both togetherness and solidarity. We focus on narratives that are rarely at the centre of attention, we debate and celebrate the potential of art to renew itself, us and the world”, comment artistic directors Tom Rejström and Jonas Welander.
This year’s premieres include Dimma by Kabrell, Salvesen, Luhtaniemi, who create an experiential visual performance concert on light, sound and fog, and Sinna Virtanen’s Swell, an independent sequel to the acclaimed Asphodel Meadows, which premiered at the 2022 edition of Hangö Teaterträff.
Other premieres include m2f2m’s trans archive and installation Hibernation as well as Pie Kär’s Song of Vili Katastrof, which takes on climate change and the feelings associated with it in a performance aimed at youths and adults of all ages.
Antonia Atarah’s newest concept, a performative installation called Don’t thank for the food, is a polycentric BIPOC living room focusing on questions regarding narrative and identity through the themes of home, food, nurture and rest. Johannes Ekholm’s Inget att dölja, a socially critical and dystopian audio drama, premieres on Thursday.
The praised The Porn Horror Musical 2 gets its Finnish premiere as Glitcher explores how the genres of porn and horror overlap, where they meet and where they part. The festival also features Swedish artists Anna Vnuk, Sandra Medina and Lisen Rosell with You Want It Darker, performance inspired by medieval art with its jovial attitude towards butt trumpets, science and torture.
Domestic performances include Wear and Tear, a workshop by Emma Fält that explores preservation, memory and death through the accumulated things and objects in our lives, Unga Teatern’s Får jag bo hos dig, a children’s performance that mixes a simple story with rhymes and games, as well as concert and plant monument Plant Based Stories III by Ada Katz, Mirella Pendolin, Pia Sirén and Ilona Valkonen. Labbet rf’s project SMACK explores new methods of writing drama for children. SMACK is a series of workshops and an open demo created by artists and children active in the project.
In addition to the performances, Hangö Teaterträff continues its discursive programme, which this year includes a course in theatre studies with Professor Dirk Gindt, arranged by LUST rf, and a discussion on curators, performing arts and art institutions, organised in collaboration with Eskus – The Performance Arts Centre. The evenings are of course celebrated with various club programmes organised this year in collaboration with, among others, the Theatre Academy's Homo Line working group and Raseborg Pride.
During the festival, the Antonia Award will also be awarded to a Finnish-Swedish performing arts work that has shown artistic courage and diversity during the past year. This year's jury consists of playwrights Kasimir Koski, Gunilla Hemming and Fabian Silén.