Encounters at Oslo’s Showbox Festival

 

The performance concept Encounters by The Feminist Secret Society of Helsinki will be experienced next in Oslo at the Showbox Festival. The idea of Encounters is that the performers on stage act as “borrowed bodies” for anonymous participants selected via an open call. The audience sees two actors who receive their lines through earpieces and repeat what they hear.

 

The Showbox Festival in November is dedicated to young audiences. According to Encounters artist Olga Palo, the performance based on anonymous encounters is well suited to the festival:

 

“We once made a version of Encounters at the Helsinki City Theatre’s contemporary stage, where the secret ‘encounterers’ were teenagers. For me, it was perhaps the most powerful, touching, and beautiful version we have ever done. There is something about the sincerity of young people that works especially well in Encounters.”

 

A workshop for the actors is an integral part of the concept. Between Helsinki and Oslo, the work was presented in Vilnius as part of the Sirenos Festival 2023 programme.

 

On that occasion, an open call for participants attracted a wide range of volunteers. The Vilnius application form suggested possible conversation topics such as sex, social norms, mental health, home, family, feminism, the life of an insect, fear of loss, kindness/goodness, guilt, LGBTQIA+, and love.

 

“We hope people will talk about what matters to them – things they might not otherwise dare to speak about. Of course, the political climate and the themes in focus always depend on the context, and in different environments there may be different pressing issues,” said working group member Amanda Palo of The Feminist Secret Society of Helsinki ahead of the Vilnius performances.

 

Encounters' shows in Oslo are supported by TINFO via the mobility project Tykö.