R.E.A.D#10 festival Helsinki
This year the festival takes place on 16th and 19th of October at Post Theatre Collective Studio in Pengerkatu 11 a 3. The 10th edition of the festival brings plays from various geographical locations and will be performed in English.
R.E.A.D is a yearly reading drama festival organized in Helsinki by Post Theatre Collective. The festival which was established in 2014 by David Kozma is an arena that offers the opportunity to get acquainted with plays that have not been performed in Finland before.
R.E.A.D brings together the Finnish audience and local and international theatre makers including playwrights, actors, and directors in an intimate environment. The festival gives a grassroot stage to plays that might not have the possibility of having a stage in Finland, with the hope to influence and diversify the program of the bigger theatre stages in the country.
PROGRAM
18:30
Guillem Clua: The Swallow
Directed by David Kozma
With Maija Paunio, Topi Kohonen, Oliver Kolberg.
“What is it that makes us human? Of all that we are and do, what do you think really defines our humanity?” For Amelia, a mother wounded to the depths of her soul, the answer lies in pain. What really makes us human is the ability to feel the pain of others as our own. That's what sets us apart from the beasts, she says. And that is the feeling that runs down the spine of The Swallow, a text directly inspired by the terrorist attack at the Pulse bar in Orlando (USA) in June 2016 and one of the pieces with the greatest international tour of the author.
The play brings together two characters, Amelia and Ramón. The former, a stern singing teacher, receives Ramón at her home, who wishes to improve his vocal technique in order to sing at the memorial of his recently deceased mother. The song chosen has a special meaning for him and, apparently, also for the woman who, despite her initial reluctance, agrees to help the young student. As the class progresses, the two characters reveal details of their past, deeply marked by an Islamist terrorist attack in the city the previous year. The real meaning of that attack, the terrorist's motivations and the long shadow of his victims provoke a confrontation between Amelia and Ramón that leads them to discover the truth about those terrible events. That truth forces them to reflect on their own identities, the acceptance of loss and the fragility of love, stripping themselves bare to such an extent that their destinies will be united forever in a common hymn to life.
The text is directly inspired by the terrorist attack at the Pulse bar in Orlando (USA) in June 2016 in which 49 people died, but La golondrina does not speak only of that attack. It also echoes the tragedies of the Bataclan Hall in Paris, the promenade in Nice, Las Ramblas in Barcelona... and tries to understand the senselessness of horror, the consequences of hatred and the strategies we use so that they do not destroy our souls. When Amelia and Ramón meet, they have two paths before them: they can choose to hate each other or walk together. They both have motives to hurt each other even more than they have suffered or to recognize themselves in each other's pain so as not to allow the beasts to win. In a way they are like all of us, because in the face of an indiscriminate attack we are all victims, whether we were there or not, and we all face the same crossroads: hate or love. Our world depends on the direction we take.
Guillem Clua is one of the most awarded and translated contemporary authors in the country, with an outstanding career in Barcelona, Madrid and abroad. His best- acclaimed plays are: Skin in Flames, recently adapted for cinema; the two parts of Smiley, converted into a hit series on Netflix; Justícia, winner of the National Dramatic Literature Award 2020; and The Swallow, premiered in over 15 countries. He has also written great epic dramas (Marburg, Gust de cendra, Invasión), policital farses (Al damunt dels nostres cants, Promised Land), musicals (Killer, 73 raons per deixar-te) and adaptations of classics (Ilíada, La Revoltosa), in addition to having many years of experience as a journalist, teacher, and scriptwriter for cinema and television. Among his latest works for the big screen is his adaptation of the novel by Torcuato Luca de Tena Los renglones torcidos de Dios, for which he was nominated for a Goya Award.
20:00
PoC Open Mic x READ Festival Helsinki
Come join us at PoC Open Mic to sing, joke, recite and rant away, this time as part of READ Festival Helsinki!
PoC = Person of Colour
PoC Open Mic Helsinki = An open mic event where BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and Persons Of Colour), members of groups racialised as non-white, and those from ethnic minorities, get a chance to perform.
At our upcoming event on 17 October, organised in collaboration with READ Festival, we offer a mic, a stage and a supportive audience.
All you need to do is turn up, tell us you want to go on, and the stage is yours!
Our event is a great chance for beginning artists, especially first timers and newbies, to sing, perform, rap, tell stories, crack jokes, make music and rant away in any language.
PoC Open Mic Helsinki is a safer space for people of colour and racialised minorities to be heard and seen and experienced by their community of colour. Friends who do not belong to racialised minorities are welcome to join the audience, enjoy the energy, and give our stars some love.
21:30
Afterparty
The festival is free of charge but requires registration.
In collaboration with Nordic Drama Corner, Marta Fluvià Agency and Eurodram - European network for drama in translation.
With the support of Arts Council of Finland and City of Helsinki