New Plays from Finland

Klaus Maunuksela (born 1993) is a playwright, dramaturg and librettist based in Helsinki. He completed his M.A. in the Helsinki Theatre Academy in 2018, majoring in dramaturgy. He is currently working on his artistic doctoral research in the Theatre Academy in the field of dramaturgy. Maunuksela’s creative output to date encompasses theatre, literature, contemporary music and the performing arts, and he is committed to combining these elements within his works as well as to challenge the status quo. He is an active member of various independent creative collectives and other autonomous artistic movements. Maunuksela’s works have been performed on YLE (the Finnish national broadcaster) and at festivals.  

 

His recent works include an experimental soundscape and performance art piece named Uxo for the 2019 Helsinki Festival; a closet drama based on the myth of Antigone named Antagonisti (Antagonist) in 2018; and a play named Magenta Boy in 2017 which is about self-representation in the YouTube age combining music, theatre and video projection on stage. Maunuksela was also one of the co-authors of the anarcho-communist manifesto published in 2019, Työstäkieltäytyjän Käsikirja (rough translation: The Work Refuser’s Handbook.)  

 

Maunuksela has worked as a dramaturg for New Play Finland (UNO, Uuden Näytelmän Ohjelma) and Theatre Nirvana. He has written an episode called Latex (Lateksi) for a series of monologues about imagined situations, everyday occurrences, and thoughts and feelings pertaining to the global pandemic and life in quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak. The monologues are available on YLE Areena: https://areena.yle.fi/audio/1-50489239