SAMPO Festival 2023 was magnificent!

Movie: Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986)

Sarah is forced to babysit her baby stepbrother, Toby, who does not stop crying and she wishes that he would disappear. Toby stops crying and when Sarah looks for him in his crib, she learns that her wish was granted, and the Goblin King Jareth has taken Toby to his castle in the Goblin City in the middle of a labyrinth. Jareth tells Sarah that she has to rescue Toby before midnight or Toby will be gone for good. This acclaimed fantasy film includes many scenes realized with puppets.

Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie depict the main characters.

“The performance you will feel”

This is an inclusive performance based on the perception of blind and partially sighted viewers. In our sensory system, 5 senses are considered the main ones - hearing, taste, sight, smell, tactile sensations. we invite you to experience a new feeling. The feeling that only you have…

A plant was born in the park in spring.  But it does not know which plant it will become. It walks around the park and searches for the plants that look like it.  It meets different trees, but none of them looks alike. In the evening the sad sprout is caught in the rain.  But maybe it is special one and not like everyone else?

Part of the audience will get eyemasks.

The performance is suitable also for people with impaired vision.

The venue is not accessible for all: it is on the second floor and can only be reached by stairs. Please contact us in advance, if you need help getting to the venue.

Ornan Braier (Israel): Little Love Machine

A magical machine serves as home for a lonely man, opens a secret door to the world of magic, rhythm, and love. This morning began with a great misunderstanding, and everything went wrong.

Me, You and That

(Já, ty a to)

An abstract exploration of the roundness of the world for our little ones.

A dance-movement show for toddlers aged 10 months to 3 years.

The world is round, the world spins around. Come spin too! Join the astronauts on an adventure through the galaxy, see a glowing planet or a planet made of soft plush! The dancers will take the children on a journey around the world.

This play gives children their first contact with theatre – it respects their needs and carefully introduces them to the world of movement, sounds, and touches. Even babies only 10 months old already start to remember things and events around them and parts of the world that they can’t see directly start to form for them.

www.damuza.cz

Hey, lads and lasses! The little son of Vitéz László and Vas Juliska has been born. But what should his name be? Juliska insists that such a tough child should be named Henrik, but László would rather name the little one after himself. Since they cannot agree, László decides to visit his Inglish friend, Mr. Punch, who lives across the La Manchee Channel to ask for advice and, killing two birds with one stone, ask him to be the child's godfather. However, on the way he meets an old acquaintance, who is none other than The Death himself who wants to take revenge on László by kidnapping the child. Thus, our resourceful hero must once again prove his smartness.

https://barnazsombor.hu

Lutkovno Gledalisce Ljubljana (Slovenia): Darkroom

Darkroom is an object-music cabaret based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier, which is considered one of his most famous stories, but also the first one not based on a literary source or a folk tale. It thus marks the beginning of the author's original creative period. It was written almost 200 years ago and has been adapted numerous times, including for ballet performances and films.

In his imagination, Andersen animates flowers, cups and statuettes by attributing a primordial trait to them. If a flower flourishes, it is conceited. In this respect, Andersen's expression is distinctly puppet-like, since his objects always act as subjects. If a soldier falls off a shelf, he fell because he wanted to escape.

In the same way, Darkroom explores the traits of objects from their perspective and brings them to life in a primal way. The rhythmical text and expressive musical passages and phrases are then woven into an active relationship with them, creating a relationship between minimalism and cacophony, and contrasts between the atmosphere of the tea ceremony and the live animation of the material. And like Andersen, the performance exposes its soldier-viewer to the elements of earth, air, water and fire, but places them in a photography studio, a darkroom.

In this darkroom, objects, animators and spectators leave memory imprints of events from their city and those from Andersen's stories. The imprints then literally evolve before our eyes and enter into new relationships. They manifest themselves between granite paving stones, lead spoons, discarded cans and screws. See the world from the perspective of tin soldiers who never wanted to be soldiers.

The performance uses excerpts from Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier, translated by Janez Gradišnik and published by Epta (1997).

www.lgl.si

(Pan Kašpar a jeho povedená rodinka)

Welcome to the original traditional Czech puppet theatre - with minimum text and with maximum action. The cast includes Mr. Kaspar, Mrs. Kalupinka, The Grim Reaper, The Baby, The Dog and lots of props and folk music instruments. The simple plot is divided into individually little stories and anecdotes. Mr. Kaspar and Mrs. Kalupinka have a baby and Mr. Kaspar must be the nanny. That's not easy when the hungry and gluttonous Grim Reaper is wandering around the house.

Everywhere in European countries (and not only) we can find a unique kind of traditional puppet theatre – glove puppets. This kind of theatre is called puppet slapstick - or, in the Czech old-fashioned way, "coffin theatre". Why "coffin theatre"? Because Kaspar, to defend his rights, took a stick and beat sometimes devils, sometimes policemen, sometimes even the grim reaper himself. But everyone knew it was just fun. That's also why all those jesters are wearing a crazy straitjacket with bells on it.

www.divadloalfa.cz

SAMPO Festival is involved in an international co-operation that will bring the young Ukrainian researcher and director Kateryna Lukianenko to Helsinki. This project, called “The Sixth Sense” explores the sensory theater format to develop inclusive performances where everything can be understood by sighted and blind spectators, adults and children.

The project was initiated by Lukianenko in Kyiv as a part of her research and teaching at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko – Kary University of Theatre, Cinema and Television. The performances are open to all types of spectators,  adults and children, who are blindfolded so that everyone can enjoy the show in the same way. Spectators are invited to use all five senses (a 5D theater, as children in Ukraine called it) to discover a “sixth sense” capable of making people equal as spectators despite their disabilities. Taste, smell, tactile, auditory and visual sensations are involved in the representations: it is a performance of sensations.

Thanks to this project, many people have had the opportunity to access the theater for the first time. Furthermore, this project shows acting from a completely different perspective where the actor is no longer someone to be observed, but has to strive to find new tools and strategies to communicate and connect with the audience.

Lukianenko will curate a professional masterclass on SAMPO Festival which will be followed by outcomes open to the public, specifically to the blind and visually impaired.

The project will be presented at Annantalo on Thursday 24.8.2023 at 4 pm.

As a conclusion of the masterclass we invite the public to see these short demo performances, made during the masterclass:

Annantalo Thu 24.8.2023 at 4.30 pm

Oodi / Kuutio Fri 25.8.2023 at 5.30 pm & 6.30 pm, Sat 26.8.2023 at 11 am & 12 pm

Free of charge

Lutkovno Gledalisce Ljubljana (Slovenia): Jossain muualla / Somewhere Else

(Nekje drugje)

Somewhere Else is a performance with a difficult subject. It is a story about a little Girl, who finds herself in the heart of war. Threatening planes are flying over the city, the streets are empty and there is no food left on the store shelves. The school is closed. And every now and then gunshots are heard nearby. Her environment has gradually changed. It has become intolerable. The Girl dreams of escaping to the countryside, where she could have a better life. She wants to go somewhere else, far away from the horrors of war. “I woke up this morning, brushed my teeth as usual, had my breakfast and went to school. Everything was as usual. Only yesterday I was playing in the yard with my friends. Everything is different now. I can't go to the yard anymore. It is too dangerous. And when I hear the thunder, my mommy and I must run to the basement. I don't even see my friends anymore. The school is over. They shut it down.”

How do the horrors of war look like through the eyes of a child? Only through this perspective can we fully understand the absurdity of the violence of war and the vulnerability of every individual. Somewhere Else is a deeply moving story about mindless war and the cruelty of it and it is quite essential to tell our youngest viewers all about it. Since the topic of the absurdity of war is quite delicate and painful, it often remains untold.

The staging of Somewhere Else will be unusual in its means of expression as well. The actress and puppeteer in the same person, will create on her own the environment in which the little Girl is walking. She will depict with her brushes and paint the hilly landscape, high skyscrapers, and the creepy soldiers, inevitably approaching the city. Video projections will absorb the viewer into the heart of this exciting story about the horrors of war, which are – fortunately enough – happening somewhere else. Or are they?

www.lgl.si

Singe Diesel (Ranska): Kazu pimeässä

(Kazu dans la nuit)

This show is a dive into the puppet workshop of Juan Perez Escala and into the world of magical realism and micro fiction, an artistic trend originating from South America.

The stories Juan tells us are really not stories. Nor poems. Definitely not haikus.

Not jokes or little tales either. He gave them a name: they are “kazus”.

Juan takes us gently into his world where love, life and death intertwine. It sublimates everyday life, trivializes madness and melancholy. And as the kazus follow one another, we realize that we are also talking about something more intimate and profound:

Kazu is madly in love with Lou, but Lou is no longer there. Yet love is still alive and joyful...

Puppets, music, and live drawings collide in this performance to create moving and philosophical poetry.

https://www.singediesel.org

Teatro Matita (Slovenia): Kuharicka Micka

A puppet sketch from a post box

Kuharica Micka is a scene taken from performance Kabaret Luknja (Cabaret Hole), based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in wonderland. In 2008 this show was the debut of Matija Solce as a director in Ljubljana puppet theatre. 10 years after putting it off the repertory, Kuharica Micka returns with the animator Miha Arh as a mini puppet show of Teatro Matita. On a beautiful summer day Mitzie le chef is baking cookies for the queen of hearts. There is also a child she is babysitting who makes her job even more interesting.

https://www.matijasolce.com

Puppet Theatre Sampo: Da Da Sur

A joyous, nonverbal dive into the world of imagination, surrealism and dadaism. Can a peg become a bird? How many boxes fit on the stage? Fantastic things come out of them!

Da Da Sur is a vitamin injection that, with its inventive visuals and charming sound world, grounds even the most restless soul. This amazing dive into the world of imagination makes reality and logic lose their meaning. The stage is filled with boxes of all sizes, from which the most unusual structures are created.

Da Da Sur is a peak into the world of Dadaism and Surrealism through object theatre, aimed at toddlers. At the end of the show, the audience gets to get to know the sets and objects of the show in more detail and try them out for themselves!

https://nukketeatterisampo.fi/ohjelmisto

La Mue/tte (Ranska): Faux Orchestre / False Orchestra

A virtuoso one-man orchestra attempts an impossible encounter between the original and the copy. In the end, reality and imagination can no longer be separated. We disappear into a world where everything has merged into one eye-popping dance of music and illusion.

Two musicians sitting back to back: one is a true musician and the other false. On one side is a musician with a stringed instrument, a Ronroco. On the other is a percussionist flanked by a drum and a cymbal with spoons on his knees. One of them is a faker, faking the other...In a turning set-up offering a vision of over 180° degrees, the two alter egos attempt an impossible encounter. They follow each other, evade, and tease each other before finally losing themselves and merging in a circular dance. The False-Orchestra plays between original and copy, reality and illusion, a fake Milonga with real Russian spoons. A fused puppet, a deported mask and music with a South American air, the False-Orchestra of this virtuoso musician is to be listened to with your eyes wide open!

NOTE!!! Due to rain on Sunday, the outdoor performance on 27.8. at 4 pm has been moved inside! The new venue is Teatteri Avoimet Ovet, Erottajankatu 5!

Plata Company & mir.theatre: Prefaby

Prefaby is an original visual and sound project, set on a formic table, freely varying motifs of everyday life in a block of flats (prefabricated concrete houses) - a symbol of a fulfilled dream of modern living in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. It is also pre-apocalyptic concrete idyll based on the stories of three nameless neighbours. This project talks about their fragile ordinariness by extraordinary means.

The performance is very intimate and there is place only for 7 people at a time.

The venue is not accessible for all: it is on the second floor and can only be reached by stairs.

https://www.facebook.com/micromikro

La Mue/tte (France): Cozy One-Man Band

(Les Intimités de l´Homme-Orchestre)

Poetic tutorial for an apprentice one-(wo)man band

Table puppet, objects and music

From the fragile and careful preambles of human-musicality (the one-man-hand) to the strong and rough character of the one-man-band, we are shown the different facets and many talents of the musician Santiago Moreno. 
Small inventions and musical assemblies build up, piece by piece, the complex one man band, for the rapture of a fascinated audience.

A playful and poetic moment where music and movement are inseparable.

Plastic Heroes

Plastic Heroes is a witty and absurd collage of a war where soldiers are tiny plastic doll´s and a table acts as the battlefield. In a war where there is no clear enemy or goal, the boundaries between reality and imagination are blurred. Does this really happen or is everything just children’s play? Plastic Heroes manages to deal with difficult topics in an emotional and fun way at the same time.

Ariel Doron (Israel/Germany): Boxed

What´s that?

Is it me?

Is it a you?

Is this real?

Or just a joke?

It´s time we open the box!

Please close it.

I´m scared.

A minimalistic piece without words for a person with a box.

Ariel Doron goes another step into minimalism and creates a fascinating short story using only a shoebox.

A funny, sensitive and scary fantasy about a lonely man, trying to get in touch with himself and the world.

NOTE!!! Due to rain on Sunday, the venue has been changed on 27.8. at 5 pm to Teatteri Avoimet Ovet, Erottajankatu 5!

https://www.arieldoron.com/

Nukketeatteri Ofelia & co

Hetkiä!

Moments!

Stunder!

Welcome to the magical world of mellow moods with your toddler - to be, sense and participate. Together, we create moments where sounds, tones, objects and instruments combined with movement will lead us from one mood to the next. In a flash, familiar objects can turn into beings that wonder the surrounding world together with the audience.

The performance doesn't use any spoken language.

http://www.nukketeatteriofelia.fi

Writer, poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe's wife, Christiane (née Vulpius) loved the theater, dancing, good food and drink (preferably champagne). Christiane took care of two households in a versatile way, knew how to drive a sleigh and when traveling alone, Christiane carried two pistols with her. Left in the shadow of her husband during her life, Rva Goethe plays the main role in this performance and gets to dance as a three-meter rod puppet with her "walkers" to the rhythm of live music.

Tiina Kolehmainen has built Christiane from the frame of an old puppet received as a donation.

On SAMPO 2022 Festival as a work-in-progress, Ariadne now returns!

A multi-emotional solo show woven of cultural identities, antique myths and magnificent art of puppet manipulation.

It’s not easy to be a Finn. The one without a decent history or self-esteem who looks like a potato. The one who can’t open their mouth and is better with moose than with people. I would change all my great genetic nature-relationships for even a little bit of Mediterranean cultural heritage and social skills.  And I would sacrifice all that is or has ever been mine, if somebody like that, not like me, loved me back.

Ariadne - A Mess is a multi-emotional tragicomedy and a one woman puppetry show made out of identity questions,  ugly woven puppets with very big eyes and hearts and the antique myth of Ariadne (you know, the one with the ball of yarn, and the labyrinth, and the Minotaur…). The surrealistic text weaves together the stories from Minoan culture to Finnish quasi folklore and as a result we end up in the  labyrinth of roots and loves and most embarrassing holiday memories. This show is also its creator Merja Pöyhönens’ personal quest to learn ventriloquism and speak with as many voices as possible.

This long-awaited  premiere is about the thirtieth attempt of the trailblazer new-wave puppetry collective Kuuma Ankanpoikanen (Dirty Duckling) to make a perfect show in the magnificent field of puppetry art.

“And then it’s emptiness. It’s the moment I have been dreaming about, but never believed it would actually

come. The horizon doesn’t change even when I close my eyes as tight as a bottle before opening them

again. Again. And again. Nothing appears. He is not here.”

https://www.facebook.com/kuuma.ankanpoikanen

https://auraofpuppets.com/esitys/kuuma-ankanpoikanen-ariadne/