Download Appendix - Circus Maximus

Background
CIRCUS MAXIMUS is a Finnish theatrical group founded in 1997. CIRCUS MAXIMUS is based in
Helsinki, but it acts locally and globally by co-operating with other professional art institutions
and groups. The members are young art professionals, not only theatre people such as
playwrights, directors and designers, but also visual artists and musicians.
CIRCUS MAXIMUS operates as a forum for artistic research and development by producing
theatre and dance productions, visual art exhibitions and radio dramas. The combination of the
artistic staff in every production varies, but the emphasis is always on the seamless integrity of
every element which create an art event. The aim is to provide the audience a thoughtprovoking and audio-visually effective experience.
CIRCUS MAXIMUS exists mainly in time, although spacial materialization takes place regularly.
Production history:
Stage productions
1997 Juhani Peltonen: Suomen Leijona ( The Lion of Finland )
The Lion Of Finland is a tragic super-farce about a Finnish family living in a deserted ice hockey
stadium. This “poor man’s stage adaptation of Independence Day” as an outdoor spectacle was
the first production of Circus Maximus. It was performed at the Tullintori square in Tampere,
Finland. The setting was based on the Finnish mania about militarism and sport...
and madness of the Finnish people in general. The Lion Of Finland was great show full of
commedia dell‘ arte characters, explosives, acrobatics and anarchy.
1998-> Samuel Beckett: Krapp eli viimeinen ääninauha ( Krapp’ s Last Tape )
One of Samuel Beckett’s most known plays, Krapp’s last Tape, was written at the height of his
career. Being raw and non-dramatic, it is very seldom played. Being as abstract and
conceptional as any other of his works, it has also exceptional emotional depth. Circus
Maximus’ adaptation of Krapp premiered in Tampere, Finland in 1998. Since then it has been
performed over 50 times all over Finland. The English version premiered in Prague’s Theatre
Archa in May 2000. The production combines skillful acting and powerful stage, light and sound
design. Praised by both audience and press, Krapp’s Last Tape has been said to have invoked a
unique theatrical atmosphere around it: one with extreme despair and absolute beauty. The
production is designed for touring purposes.
2000 Peter Handke: Järkevät jää henkiin ( They will die away )
Peter Handke is one of the most controversial European playwrights. They will die away,
written in 1973, is set around a businessman whose emotions are tearing him apart. On the
other hand he has to be very hard and calculative business executive to avoid total
bankruptcy, but on the other hand he wants to express his emotions fully and honestly. This
production was a co-operation with Actors’ training department of Tampere University.
2000 Heiner Müller: Hamletkone ( Hamletmachine )
Hamletmachine is a modern classic. Circus Maximus was the first theatre group in Finland to
produce this brilliant play. Theatre, individual and society : totalitarism and art are the key
factors in this production. Machine is universal and timeless. The production combined buto
dance and contemporary music with visual thrills. This was a huge success in Helsinki.
2000-> Miko Jaakkola: Turing
The strange life of Alan Turing ( 1912-1954 ) is the basis of this production. Widely considered
as the founding father of modern computer science but also a philosopher and a war hero
whose codebreaking work was one of the turning points of WWII, Turing lead an extraordinary
life and died in a most mysterious way. The play is a fictional journey into the mind of this
extraordinary person whose main question in his research was “ What is mind?”. This
production has been probably the hugest success of Circus Maximus. The production is
designed for touring purposes, and a version in English language is being planned for 2003
2001 Samuel Beckett: 5 X Beckett
The production consisted of 5 original presentations of Samuel Beckett’s short plays. The plays
were Not I, Rockaby, Cascando, A Piece of Monologue and What where. 5 X Beckett was shown
in two different city theatres, in Helsinki and in Tampere. Circus Maximus’ interest in staging
Beckett’s often misunderstood drama is well known and appreciated in Finland.
2001 Sarah Kane: Cleansed
One of the most challenging plays by the brilliant but ill-fated British playwright. In Cleansed
five inmates are imprisoned in a barbarous university, each one viciously controlled by a
doctor who performs unspeakable acts on the inmates. It’s a story about such grave themes as
love, death and drug addiction. Cleansed has often been staged as raw and violent as the text
itself, but Circus Maximus chose another perspective. The production was stylized as a kind of
ultramodern chamber opera, evoking both delight and disgust in the audience.
2003 H.P. Lovecraft- Sami Keski-Vähälä: Charles Dexter Wardin tapaus
( The Case of Charles Dexter Ward )
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a story of a young scientist who becomes deeply interested
in the fate of his great-great-grandfather. While trying to solve the mystery of his ancestor he
gets lost in the world of alchemy and black magic. Charles Dexter Ward’s destiny is to be
destroyed by his own curiosity. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is the first professional
staging of a work by cult author H.P. Lovecraft in the whole world. The Case of Charles Dexter
Ward is a classic mystery tale but also an argument about the values of science.
2003 Sami Keski-Vähälä: Matkalla Bogotaan ( On the Way to Bogota )
Premiere October 16th, 2003 in the Finnish Sports Museum ( Olympic Stadium, Helsinki )
On the way to Bogota is a saga of the rise and fall of a fictional athlete set in the golden age of
Finnish track and field, the 1970’s. It’s also an exhibition about fictional past; how things could
have been.
2003 A.& B.Strugatsky/M.Viljanen/M.Kanninen: STALKER
One of the most famous science fiction classics on stage. The storyboard was based on Arkadi
& Boris Strugatski`s novel "Roadside Picnic"(1972). Stage action was a scientific journey of
exploration into the world touched by "The Zone", not another description of the events told by
the book or the movie by Andrei Tarkovsky.
The original story tells of a mysterious Zone in Canada where enigmatic artifacts can be found,
left there like picnic rubbish on an alien stopping place. In 2003 CIRCUS MAXIMUS was trying
to find out what THE ZONE is.....
...our play tried to project the life of the people who are living in so called theoretical science
community, and the life of the people who are living their everyday life inside this phenomenon
called "The Zone". Point being, that one cannot theoreticize about such phenomena only by
calculations, strict classifications and pure "natural" science. One has to take the "human
involvement" into consideration, understand how it is in fact changing the whole phenomenon
itself.
2004 Miko Jaakkola: My friend Rosalin Franklin
A Small play about a meeting between DNA-researcher Rosalind Franklin and mysterious MR.
Strokes. Happens in London around 1950.
Radio dramas
(in co-operation with Finnish Broadcasting Company)
2001 Miko Jaakkola:
Turing
An audio adaptation of the successful stage production went much further than mere recital of
the text and became an independent piece of art. A soothing but profound listening
experience.
2001 Joseph Conrad - Mikko Viljanen:
Hulluuden sydän ( The Heart of Insanity )
Alternative history of marshall Mannerheim’s youth following the story of Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness. This production combines critical reading of history with a classic adventure on the
icy rivers of Siberia.
2002 George Orwell – Mikko Viljanen:
Eläköön tuonenkielo ( Keep the Aspidistra Flying )
Orwellian mindscape in audio form. 1930’s story about young commercial professional’s
rebellion against the power of money is now more topical than ever.
Upcoming productions
2005 -
JULES VERNE – production
An OPERA about THE TRUTH
LAST DAYS OF POMPEJI