On stage – Kaisa Leppänen, Jarkko Niemi, Annika Poijärvi, Tatu Mönttinen, Sara Melleri ja Saara Kotkaniemi. Director – Sini Pesonen Writer – Jussi Moila Music and sound design – Pauli Riikonen and Juho Alajuuma Choreography – Sonya Lindfors Lighting and video design – Ina Niemelä Costume design – Henna-Riikka Taskinen Set design – Salli Kari and artist Jani Leinonen.
Madonna is a carnivalesque performance about feminism, femininity, motherhood and roles in a nuclear family and in a society.
Performers – Marjo Selin, Sanna Kaisa Sundström and Ina Niemelä Dramatisation – Outi-Maria Takkinen Director – Sami Nieminen Choreographer – Marjo Selin Composer and sound designer – Sanna-Kaisa Sundström Set designers – Ina Niemelä and Camilla Pentti Sewing and building – Oona Niemelä Audience work – Kiti Hakkola and Outi-Maria Takkinen Production –Vattumadon talo ry/ Outi-Maria Takkinen and Ina Niemelä, Rasa Collective/ Marjo Selin
The production has been supported by the City of Helsinki Cultural Office, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Central Arts Council of Finland and the Wihuri Foundation.
The frog, the dragonfly and the caterpillar live in the vegetable garden. There is light, there are clouds, there is water – and then there’s winter. This production invites children and adults into the vegetable garden as well, so they can play and make music.
The inspiration for this performance is the poetry book All is well in the garden, written by Jukka Itkonen and illustrated by Camilla Pentti (publisher Lasten Keskus, 2014). The play is aimed at preschool-aged children. Join us and celebrate speed and commotion, the power of being little and the miracle of growing!
On Stage – Pia Andersson Writing – Laura Gustafsson Music and sounds – Tuomas Hautala Directing – Sini Pesonen Lighting and video desing – Ina Niemelä Costume design – Tellervo Syrjäkari Scenography – Tellervo Syrjäkari and Ina Niemelä
Premiere 9.9.2017 at Teatteri Jurkka Performance language Finnish #kikkafanclub
Photos – Marko Mäkinen
Kikka Fan Club is a tribute to a childhood’s idol who taught us, the working group, then, and even more so now, about play, joy, and fun.
Kikka (1964–2005) is a Finnish singer who was at the height of her fame in the early 90’s. Even though her popularity she was also much belittled in media. What we today may interpret more as a joyful performance of female gender, was at her time noted as something obscene and cheap, and she was often reduced as a woman who uses her sexuality in order to attain publicity.
Kikka Fan Club is not a biography. Through Kikka’s character the monologue studies mechanisms of play (in every sense of the word), the inevitability of decay, and person’s freedom to be a multitude of things.
Soundscape composed by Tuomas Hautala is influenced by Kikka’s original songs but also by classical music. Sparkling, anti – Aristotelian structure of the performance is inspired by the structure of a symphony – and perhaps a bit by female orgasm.
Kikka Fan Club, Marko Mäkinen (2017)
Synopsis by L. Gustafsson
1. Act
The actress pays homage to Kikka. She talks about playing. We hear a monologue of author Pekka Hiltunen on how he and his boyfriend went to an extra modest Kikka Fan Club meeting in the early 90’s, them and Kikka being the only grownups in the place. Kikka dreams of success. At the peak of her success she also has to face contempt, depreciation, and misogyny. On a video the director talks about body image issues and how she idolized Kikka as a child.
A reconstruction of a TV show Kikka attended the time everyone in Finland knew her. The interviewer talks about Kikka’s male fans, who masturbate in her concerts, and finally calls her a slut (although he explains that it’s not him who feels that way, but other people). Kikka defends herself: why couldn’t a woman be both beautiful and talented – why can’t one’s identity be seen in all of its diversity.
In a video the working group perform Kikka inspired dance. Kikka performs her most famous song, then she analyzes the lyrics: not only can they be interpreted as concerning sex, a whole different levels of aging, being a woman, and making a career as a female artist, can be read into the text.
2. Act
On a video the playwright talks about her inability to resist the prevailing beauty standards, and how she wishes, that someone would have told Kikka that it’s OK to be many things at the same time.
An announcement that Kikka has died. Kikka comes to stage older than in the first act. She talks with drag artist Pola Ivanka about the occasion Pola met her the last time. A monologue in which she both excuses and defends her artist persona. She tells that she’s more than the media has claimed her to be. She’s grateful to her fans. A Kikka inspired song that the working group wishes Kikka accepted, maybe would’ve even performed.
Choreography – Sari Palmgren Sound design – Tuomas Norvio & Esa Mattila Music – Mikko Perkola, Tuomas Norvio & Esa Mattila Costume design – Riitta Röpelinen Lighting design – Ina Niemelä Performers – Pekka Louhio, Mikko Perkola, Marjukka Savolainen, Pauliina Kyttä & almost 80 volunteers Production – Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Kanneltalo, Sari Palmgren
Premiere: 24.8.2017, as a part of the Helsinki Festival. Back by popular demand with 6 additional performances in August 2018
