Anna Paavilainen’s play premiered in 2014 and hit like a thunderbolt at the time: it sold out the main stage of the National Theater several times and achieved significant international popularity.

Celebrating 10 years in the sky, Play Rape has now been rewritten in version 2.0 and updated to reflect the post-#metoo era. Unfortunately, the play is still as relevant as ever. 

In the new English version, actress-translator June Hyde takes the stage .

Play Rape is a violent, powerful, but humorous monologue that deals with shame, the thin line between fiction and reality, and gender-based power structures on stage and elsewhere. In short, it is about life in our modern societies. 

After the performance, a discussion session will be held in the space, where the challenges of translating auto-fictional plays will be discussed. What puzzles arise when translating to different languages, cultural contexts and bodies? Play Rape has been translated by e.g. in English, Swedish, German and Catalan. 

Play Rape 2.0 Working Group:

Script and direction: Anna Paavilainen
English translation and performer: June Hyde
Producer: Eeva Bergroth
Supporters: Kone foundation

Anna Paavilainen is a director, screenwriter and actress. He has worked with theatre, performance art, film and music and has experimented with their various combinations and interfaces throughout his life. His theater works Play rape and Sinuus and the films Two bodies on the beach, Tottumimkysymys and Kikka! research gender roles, the gaze and its structures, and he is endlessly fascinated by the emotions a woman’s body evokes in society.

For the past twenty years, Eeva Bergroth has worked versatilely in the field of Finnish performing arts as a producer, publicist and executive director as well as curator and translator. In addition to his production and administrative duties, Bergroth has translated plays from different languages ​​into Finnish and translated e.g. Produced by Mika Myllyaho and Kristian Smeds in German. A German version of Anna Paavilainen’s Play Rape was completed for Hanover’s Theaterformen festival in 2017.

June Hyde is a Finnish-British actress who graduated from East15 Acting School. He has worked e.g. Helsinki City Theater and the National Theater. Hyde has played a wide variety of characters in both dramas and comedies over the years. He also performs as a singer and works a lot with his voice in various projects, from art museums to cartoon voice exhibitions. She is a feminist and a mother of two teenage girls. Hyde has translated Play Rape into English together with his spouse Jehki Härkönen.

Location:

Bar Tÿpo
Lintulahdenkatu 3

Free access!

Bar Tÿpo’s facilities are physically accessible. Read more about the accessibility of the venue 
here.

Duration: 2 h (presentation 1 h 15 min + 45 min discussion)

Language: English