New Plays from Finland

Iira Halttunen

Iira Halttunen (born 1993) is a playwright, producer and dramaturg who completed her M.A. in dramaturgy at the Helsinki Theatre Academy in 2019. She is currently working as a dramaturg and producer at YLE for an art podcast named Hotellimuusat (rough translation: Hotel muses). The podcast is available at: https://areena.yle.fi/audio/1-50218441 
 
Her first written play, Ähtäriin (rough translation: To Ähtäri), was selected for further development from KOM-teksti, an open online catalogue for new domestic texts and plays. The play was then refined in collaboration with Pipsa Lonka and Okko Leo before premiering in the Gloria Cultural Arena in Helsinki in 2008. The play’s central themes focused on domestic violence, alcoholism, suicide and homosexuality. In her other plays, she has dealt with themes such as friendship between girls, adolescence, and alienation. 
 
In 2016, Halttunen took part in establishing a community-oriented, site-specific theatre group based in Tampere named Täsmäteatteri which she is still actively involved in. The group’s most recent work, Terveisin, Teatteri (rough translation: Regards, The Theatre) which was born during the 2020 pandemic involves mailing a letter to the viewer’s home containing instructions on how to carry out a performance independently in one’s own vicinity. 

 

"Although others feel the time for it has passed, when it comes to plays I still believe in the story to some extent. I think that in order to succeed, a good play needs artists capable of reading and interpreting its roots instead of getting paralyzed and hung up at the first fork in the trunk. One of my cohort-mates said that the rhythm of Perfect is like the breathing of a lost orienteer." (Iira Halttunen)

Iira Halttunen

Agencies