FINLAND (2011) developed as an innovative experiment: During one working session, four authors from four countries were introduced to a true family story. On the basis of this story each had the task to write a 20 min. story. long play. The authors agreed on which character to focus on in each play. In addition, titles were named. This was and remained the only meeting, the only personal exchange between the authors until the premiere of FINLAND.
After handing in their texts translated and at an appointed date, rehearsals started and Frank Heuel experimented with different dramaturgies within the four texts. The final conclusion was that each work demands its own space with its own distinct theatrical language. The result of this experiment is a theater night, in which multi-perspectivity plays a large role – and the concept worked.
Heuel presents the four drama texts one after the other, effecting an elaborate introduction into the events, applying quasi-cinematic techniques to the scenes. The result is an equally haunting and an innovative theater night.
Cologne City Gazette
Objectively unspectacular, but dramatically on a level that doesn’t simply go under the skin, but currently the best of the independent scene in North-Rhine-Westphalia.
culture
The result is a fascinating mounting and dismounting at the same time […] Disturbing and sometimes absurd comedy […] There are no winners this evening, apart from the audience.
General-Anzeiger Bonn
For more information on FINLAND, please visit the fringe ensemble website or take a look at our trailer .
On October 6 and 7, 2012 we perform FINLAND in Valmiera, Latvia.
FINLAND is a production of fringe ensemble/phoenix5 in coproduction with theaterimballsaal (Bonn) and the Theater im Pumpenhaus (Munster). FINLAND is funded by the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia, the City of Bonn, the City of Munster, the Ministry of Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sports of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Cultural Foundation Matrong.