Lahti City Theatre
Lahti City Theatre is one of the biggest theatres in Finland. The theatre has a permanent artistic, administrative and technical staff and it operates on three stages. The repertory of Lahti City Theatre consists of musicals, both Finnish and foreign classic and modern drama and children´s plays. The number of new productions per year is 8-11.
The first premier of the autumn season 2011 was musical Cabaret that takes the audiences to enchanting and decadent Berlin and its last days of wild freedom before the rise of the Nazi party. The premier was on September 8th. The next opening night on the main stage takes place on October 22nd with Maria Jotuni´s Finnish classic Tohvelisankarin rouva ("The Armchair Hero´s Wife).
The small stage opened its autumn season with new Finnish drama that deals with the predicament of modern people lost under everyday pressures and the maze of modern technology. Kotimaa (at) taakse.jai takes its title from a popular nostalgic Finnish song. In October the small stage adds to its repertory a treat for children over seven years with Angela Sommer-Bodenburg´s Little Vampire. On the studiostage Happy Prince, a short play based on Oscar Wilde´s story fulfils the demand for a play for smaller children.
Henrik Ibsen´s The Wild Duck is the basis for a cooperation between TTT-Theatre, Lahti City Theatre and Alexander Theatre. Mikko Roiha has made an original adaptation of the play, the cast is a combination of actors from Lahti and Tampere and the play will be performed in Lahti, Tampere and Helsinki. The opening night of The Wild Duck is on the small stage in Lahti on November 11th.
Another cooperation and play directed by Mikko Roiha is the gripping story of Vincent River. Philip Ridley´s play tells about the murder of a homosexual man. Lahti City Theatre is one of the producers of the play that has been seen already in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. The play opened in Lahti in September and will continue in the repertory all through the spring season as well.
In the repertory of the main stage from the previous season continues Pesärikko, a play based on a novel trilogy by Orvokki Autio telling about strong women and the social control in the Ostrobothnia society. The small stage offers a real classic treat with Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, and on the studio stage continues Morris Panych's acclaimed and awarded black comedy Auntie and Me. All three plays will close by the end of the year.
The first premier in spring 2012 on the main stage is opera The Troubadour by Giuseppe Verdi. The premier of the opera is on January 13th and it is a cooperation between Lahti Symphony, Lahti Opera Society and Lahti City Theatre.
The first premier on the small stage is also a cooperation that had its original premier on the Helsinki Stage Festival already in August. Savyon Liebrecht´s Banality of Love portrays the intense and secret love story of two of the greatest intellectuals of their time, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. The first performance in Lahti is on January 12th.
Shakespeare´s classic comedy The Taming of a Shrew has been newly translated for Lahti City Theatre and the play has its premier on the main stage on February 15th. Pirkko Saisio´s new play Syvin kerros (Deepest Level), a suspense play with humour and drama, will have its premier on the small stage on February 16th.
