Oblivia: Turn Turtle Turn - the lecture performance
I love
Greek tragedy.
I love how they plunge us straight into the quivering state of afters.
After the tragedy comes more tragedy.
And then more. And more.
Performer Annika Tudeer, Oblivia's artistic director,
celebrates her 60th birthday with her most personal work yet: Within a minimalist stage space, between tables and stacks of paper full of real and dreamt-of (hi)stories, she describes the uniqueness and vulnerability of her biography as an unwanted child, left behind and then adopted. Contrasted with singing as well as fragmentary dance and movement, Annika reads and narrates about her yearning to belong to the a new as well as old family, equal parts touching as well as unsparing, telling about men and women, her own and strage bodies, about motherhood and emancipatory processes, about childhood, youth and ageing, and not least about the wish to be loved unconditionally and to be able to love unconditionally herself.
With a forceful poetic impact, she takes the audience along on her life's course of time for an hour – somewhere between the beginning of the world, Greek mythology and today – while choosing the audience as an intimate foil and witness to, in equal parts, almost painful "What if?" scenarios and conciliatory perspectives. Over the evening's duration, Annika's story progressively transforms into an universal consideration of our lifelong quest for connection and meaning.
The Turn Turtle Turn lecture-performance was created as part of Oblivia's series on the Anthropocene that began with the musical theatre production Turn Turtle Turn for the Munich Biennale in June 2024.
“Time is such a strange construct. Billions of years since life began on earth, thousands since there have been humans. Constant life, constant death, but Earth is not impressed at all and keepson turning – and always it is just our own life, that speck of sand within eternity’s sandstorm, that lies in the centre of how we perceive time.”
- Annika Tudeer
Text, on stage: Annika Tudeer
Dramaturgy, direction: Timo Fredriksson, Tua Helve, Annika Tudeer
Costume design: Tua Helve
Lighting design: Meri Ekola & Stine Hertel
Sound design: Yiran Zhao
Producer: Jenny Nordlund & Inari Pesonen
Communications: Essi Brunberg & Viestintätoimisto Röd
Graphic design: Jenni Salminen / Röd
Photography: Saara Autere
Video & trailer: Jonatan Sundström
Production: Oblivia, Mad House Helsinki
Thanks to Juha Valkeapää, Anna-Maija Terävä & the whole Turn Turtle Turn team
Supporters:
Photo by Saara Autere
SCHEDULE
Wed 12.3. at 19
Thu 13.3. at 19
Fri 14.3. at 16
Sat 15.3. at 16
LOCATION
Mad House Helsinki
Lintulahdenkatu 3, 00530
DURATION
60 min
LANGUAGE
English
NOTE
N/A
ACCESSIBILITY
The work is not inclusive. No subtitles or other interpretation. The work contains a lot of English speech.
AGE RECOMMENDATION
12+
PRICE
10-40€
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