Nine Finnish Playwrights Featured at Gothenburg Book Fair 

 

The largest cultural event in the Nordics – the Gothenburg Book Fair – will spotlight drama as one of its main themes in September 2025. Nine playwrights have been selected to participate as part of a Finnish delegation: E. L. Karhu, Leea Klemola, Pipsa Lonka, Christoffer Mellgren, Arni Rajamäki, Laura Ruohonen, Otto Sandqvist, Milja Sarkola and Saara Turunen. 
 

The playwrights will take part in more than 20 discussions over four days, from September 25-28, 2025 at the Gothenburg Book Fair in Sweden. Their most recent plays have been translated into Swedish and published, and will be available for purchase at the fair.  

 

The event will bring together over a hundred playwrights from across the region, and feature international playwrights such as Tony Kushner, Roland Schimmelpfennig, and Palestinian playwright Dalia Taha. This is likely the largest gathering of playwrights ever the Nordic-Baltic region, with more than a 100 talks, readings, and events dedicated to drama.  

 

“This is an amazing opportunity to showcase new Finnish drama not only for theatre professionals in the Nordics, but also to a wider reading audience”, says Linnea Stara, director of TINFO. “We naturally hope to see a renewed interest in Nordic and Baltic drama within our region, and eventually more productions of contemporary drama from neighboring countries on our stages.”  

 

The Finnish program includes readings of Finnish plays by the actor Stina Ekblad, discussions on Finnish drama and feminism with professor emerita Tiina Rosenberg, as well as shorter stage conversations on the art of writing, on the threat of self-censorship in tumultous times, Finnish theatrical phenomena, cowboys, the drama of care, and on the influences of the true crime genre on playwriting – among many other topics.  

 

In addition, the Gothenburg City Theatre will host a reading of Pipsa Lonka’s new play Peter Lived in a House (premiering in &Espoo Theatre in spring 2026) on September 26, 2025 at 1 pm at the theatre.  

 

The drama theme has been coordinated by new network of Nordic and Baltic theatre organisations, led by Theatre Info Finland TINFO, Colombine Theatre Agency, Dramatikkens Hus and Estonian Theatre Agency, with the support of theatre institutions from all the Nordic and Baltic countries.