Nine plays to receive the World on Stage grant

1.11.2023

The first round of World on Stage grants was announced in 2022 by the Finnish Cultural Foundation to encourage Finnish theatres to translate 30 new theatre works from around the world into Finnish, and show them on Finnish stages. There is an emphasis on primarily finding plays outside the Anglo-American language sphere. The overall funding sum for the initiative will come to around EUR 1.2 million over three years.

The total sum awarded in this application round was EUR 250,000, given out to a total of nine projects. The source languages of the theatre works in question are Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, French, Swedish, and Russian. 

“The World on Stage grant was developed based on the observation that top-quality contemporary dramatic works from non-Anglo-American language regions are in a clear minority in theatres. The works being translated now can enrich and diversify the programmes of theatres in Finland,” explains the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Regional Fund Officer Antti Niskanen, who is in charge of the World on Stage grants application round.

Teatteri Avoimet Ovet will present the Finnish adaptation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych), based on the Polish novel by Olga Tokarczuk, in which not only numerous villagers but also a diverse group of animals make their voices heard.

As an Iraqi-Ukrainian-Finnish collaboration, Alpo Aaltokoski Company will produce a theatre performance based on Albert Camus‘ French-language work The State of Siege (L’État de siège). The play was written in 1948 but is very relevant today. It presents a post-war storyline in which people who have experienced horrors cannot shed their fears.

The Sign Language theatre Teatteri Totti received a grant to translate into Finnish the Swedish-language play Frans by Sarah Remgren, and to produce its staging. The languages used in the performance will be Finland-Swedish and Finnish Sign Languages, Finnish, and Swedish.

Of the theatre productions supported through the first funding round in 2022, three have premiered so far: KESYTÖN eli O:n markiisitar – Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (orig. WÜST Oder Die Marquise von O…. – Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) at KokoTeatteri, Heterofiili (orig. Heterofil) at Valtimonteatteri, and Neuvostoihmisen loppu (orig. Время секонд хэнд, Vremya sekond khend) by the Helsinki-based theatre group sadsongskomplex:fi and the working group Helsinki 98. The next round of applications will be in August 2024.

The practical implementation of the World on Stage project in the years 2022–2024 is managed by TINFO Theatre Info Finland, which has also compiled a curated database of current plays that are suitable for translation.

“It’s especially pleasing to notice how theatres are working together to produce works and tours. The range of grant recipients also shows that the initiative has managed to reach theatres all over Finland. There is great diversity among the plays being translated into Finnish, so theatre audiences can expect many enticing performances,” says Linnea Stara, director of TINFO.  

The other funding body involved in the World on Stage project is the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, which supports the translation of plays into Swedish and performance stagings in Finland’s Swedish-language theatres.

Supported performance productions in 2023:

• MA Jaakko Heinonen and working group for the translation and staging of Svetlana Alexievich’s Russian-language novel Цинковые мальчики (Zinky Boys)
• Jyväskylä City Theatre for translating Monika Isakstuen‘s Norwegian-language play Se på meg når jeg snakker til deg (Look at me when I am talking to you), and producing its Finnish-language premiere
• Klockriketeatern theatre for the translation, production, and touring of the Swedish play Syrénvägen by Anders Duus, in cooperation with the theatre house Keski-Uudenmaan Teatteri 
• The KokoTeatteri Association for the translation and production of Sara Stridsberg‘s Swedish-language play Svindel
• Lappeenranta City Theatre for the translation, production, and touring of Daniel J. Meyer‘s Spanish-language A.K.A., in cooperation with Teatteri Jurkka
• Nomadi / Alpo Aaltokoski Company for the translation and production of a multidisciplinary and multicultural stage work based on Albert Camus‘ L’État de Siège (The State of Siege)
• The Teatteri Avoimet Ovet Association for the Finnish translation and production of Emilia Sadowska’s stage adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk‘s Polish-language novel Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead)
• Teatteri Totti for the translation, production, and presentation of Sarah Remgren‘s Swedish-language play Frans
• Art House Turku for the translation and production of Stefano Massini‘s Italian reading drama Bunker Kiev in cooperation with Turku City Theatre and Åbo Svenska Teater

Ten New Play Translations for Finnish Theatres

2.11.2022

The World on Stage grant model, intended for theatres, first opened for applications in August 2022. The grants that have now been awarded will be used to have ten high-quality plays from our time translated from various languages into Finnish and performed on Finnish stages for a broad culture-loving audience. The total sum awarded in the grant’s first application round was just over EUR 250,000.

“The number of applications was good, considering that this was the first time that this grant was available. I am particularly pleased about the diversity of the applicants. The selection of source languages was also broad,” explains Regional Fund Officer Antti Niskanen from the Cultural Foundation, who was in charge of handling the applications.

The plays’ source languages include Arabic, Icelandic, Catalan, French and Russian. There is also a play partly written in Pidgin English. The recipients of the grant included work groups, freelance operators and some large theatres. The first performances facilitated by the grant will appear on Finnish stages during 2023.

Among the successful grant applications were several Nordic plays: the Swedish play Heterofil by Christina Ouzounidis, the Icelandic play Græna landið by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson and the Norwegian Tid for glede by Arne Lygre. Representatives of more distant languages included the Arabic-language play Orange by Basim Kahar.

The World on Stage grant was conceived based on the observation that fewer and fewer contemporary plays from non-Anglophone language regions are being produced in Finland. Recent dramatic works from continental Europe or elsewhere in the world are rare in Finnish theatres. The Cultural Foundation hopes that the volume of applications will grow in the future, and that they will primarily pertain to plays in languages other than English.

“This funding will contribute to enriching and diversifying the programming in Finnish theatres. We hope that the translations will also live to be repeatedly performed on Finnish stages,” Niskanen says.

The Cultural Foundation’s partner for the World on Stage project for 2022–2024 is Theatre Info Finland (TINFO), which has, among other things, curated a list of recent plays suitable for translating.

“I am glad to see how many theatres and dramatic ensembles managed to take part in the first application round, taking into account how much additional work the pandemic’s aftercare, including all the production postponements, has caused for theatres. We are particularly pleased about the diversity of plays from around the world that the applications pertain to,” says TINFO’s director Linnea Stara.

The aim of the World on Stage funding is to encourage Finnish theatres to have a total of thirty new, contemporary plays from around the world translated into Finnish, and then to perform them. The Cultural Foundation’s funding for the project will total around EUR 1.2 million. The next applications for World on Stage will be accepted in August 2023.

Funding for having plays translated into Finland’s second official language, Swedish, and performed on Finland’s Swedish-language stages is provided by the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, with the next application round taking place in November 2022.

Recipients of the World on Stage grant

• Helsinki Theatre Foundation: EUR 16,000 for translating the play Tid for glede by Arne Lygre from Norwegian into Finnish, and for covering other expenses related to the production.
• Anu Hirsiaho (PhD Soc. Sc.) and Charles Ogu (MPhil): EUR 30,000 for the translation and production of the Nigerian play Embers by Soji Cole.
• Jyväskylä City Theatre: EUR 10,000 for translating the play Petits crimes conjugaux by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt from French into Finnish and producing the Finnish première.
• Central Uusimaa Theatre: EUR 30,000 for translating and producing the Catalan play Tocar Mare by Marta Barceló.
• Koko Theatre: EUR 30,000 for translating and producing the German play WÜST or The Marquise Of O…. – Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! By Enis Maci.
• Joel Lehtonen (BA Theatre Arts) and team: EUR 22,500 for translating and producing a play adaptation from the novel Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich.
• Black and White Theatre: EUR 30,000 for translating and producing the play The War Has Not Yet Started by the Russian playwright Mikhail Durnenkov.
• Rauma City Theatre: EUR 30,000 for translating and producing the Icelandic play Græna landið by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson.
• Finnish National Theatre: EUR 27,000 for translating and producing the Arabic-language play Orange by Basim Kahar.
• Valtimonteatteri: EUR 30,000 for translating and producing the play Heterofil, written in Swedish by Christina Ouzounidis.