How to make theatre at a time when we can't really meet? Who are we and what is Kven identity? Tonight you can have a conversation with Ida Løken Valkeapää about these questions. She directed the performance Letter from Elmine, which is shown on the Centre for Northern People tonight at 6 p.m.
Torun Olsen Wernberg Avenue
What: Musical performance: Letters from Elmine
Where: Davvi álbmogiid guovddáš / Centre for Northern Peoples
When30 September at 18:00
Ticket price: 100,-
- I'm really looking forward to coming to Manndalen with the performance, says director Ida Løken Valkeapää
When the musical performance Letter from Elmine At the Centre for Northern Peoples this evening, she will open a discussion with the public about both the work behind and the plot of the performance.
Brev fra Elmine was originally supposed to premiere during the Kven Festival in Vadsø in June, but like everything else, it was stopped by the corona epidemic. This, of course, created some challenges for the production.
– We invite you to an open and informal conversation with the audience about making theatre at a time when we cannot meet physically, and about the work and thoughts behind the performance, says Valkeapää.
Although the performance is primarily about Kven immigration to Norway in the 19th century, seen from Elmine's perspective, the play encompasses many stories and reflections on identity.
– Many find it thought-provoking that we circle around many identities in the play. Seen from the outside, people often seem to be of one piece. In the midst of all this, one is a mosaic of stories, impressions and identities to a greater or lesser extent, says Valkeapää.
Fictional letters from Elmine
Elmine was 20 years old when she, like many others, came from Tornedalen to Vadsø at the end of the 1800s. The performance is based on fictional letters she might have sent home to Pello in Tornedalen. Trygg Jakola wrote the letters on behalf of his grandmother.
The cast and crew of the performance include Inger Birkelund, Nikolai Äystö Lindholm, Eili Bråstad Johannessen from KultNett, Ida Løken Valkeapää (director), Lina Killingdalen (dramaturgist), and Tove Raappana Reibo (technician).
The event is part of Paaskiviikko 2020 and is a collaboration between Halti Kven Culture Centre IKS and the Centre for Northern Peoples. Paaskiviikko 2020 is supported by Troms and Finnmark County Council and the Arts Council Norway.
Read more about the performance:
Fictional letters from grandmother Elmine home to Finland become a performance, NRK
The performance «Letters from Elmine» evoked strong emotions in the descendants, NRK