THE UNMENTIONABLE

Niina Lindroos & Tehdas Theatre (Finland)

At Fimfa festival FIMFA Lx - International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms

CENTRO CULTURAL DA MALAPOSTA - Auditório Lisbon

27 May at 6pm (Sat) | 28 May at 4.30pm (Sun)

The Unmentionable is a solo toy theatre performance inspired by life and art of a French photographer and painter Dora Maar (1907- 1997).

The starting point for the piece was the puppet theatre-like presence of Dora Maar’s surrealist photographs; the situations, spaces and characters in the images all lead towards something words cannot express. What is left outside the photograph frames? What happens before and after the brief moment that is captured on film?

The Unmentionable keenly perceives Dora Maar’s oeuvre, approaches it with awe and playfulness, finally passionately plunges into its world. The performance depicts melancholy as well as the titillating sense of mystery, two feelings that create the characteristic tension in the artist’s works. The solo bows to Dora Maar’s art yet also creates its own, indescribable reality with the means of puppetry arts.

WORKING GROUP
Direction and dramaturgy: Niina Lindroos & Elina Sarno
Performance and puppet construction: Niina Lindroos
Light design: Essi Santala
Sound design: Henri Hyökyvirta
Costumes: Riikka Mellin and working group
Logistics and visual assistance: Jenni Rutanen
Scenography: working group
Photographs: Maija Kurki
Production: Niina Lindroos and TEHDAS Theatre

The performance premiered in TEHDAS Theatre, Turku FI on 9 April 2021.

Duration: 1 h (no intermission)
Age recommendation: 13+
Language: without spoken words

BIO
Niina Lindroos is a director, actress and puppeteer. In her puppet making, Niina Lindroos favours deformity, grotesqueness and the beauty found in imperfection. She combines costume design with puppet theatre arts and has, for example, made puppets consisting of full-body masks to be worn by the performer.

Niina graduated from the Turku Arts Academy Academy as a puppet theatre professional in 2007. Since then she has produced professional puppet theatre performances in Turku, Helsinki, Vienna and Prague.