When it’s black, the colors are more visible – DIANAT roadshow performance
The performance DIANAT is one of the Turku Art Academy´s roadshow performances. It is a documentary theatre performance that explores the life of a child coping with substance abuse and mental illness in her family. This child immerses herself in play, empathizing with her role model, Princess Diana.
Engaging with experts
The artist group worked in cooperation with Mental Health Relatives of Southwest Finland (FinFami ry). The ensamble – Emmi Ihalainen, Riikka Kasper, Kaisa Kauppinen, and Tuomas Vainionpää – worked in a multidisciplinary manner with FinFami ry. It was important to hear the perspectives of people who have own experience on the topic and highlight their stories.
The working group conducted a workshop with individuals affected by mental health issues, which helped shape the performance’s dramaturgy and choose a child’s perspective. Princess Diana’s story fairy-tale narrative with strict standards of the royal court served as both inspiration and material for the performance.
About the performance
The group describe the performance in their own words:
“A video of Princess Diana is spinning on TV. Hair, veil, knead, wedding – the child escapes into a dream world. A minefield, dodging, an accident, a funeral – until reality wakes up.
When it’s black, the colors are more visible.”
Turku Roadshow performances: Amplifying untold stories in theatre
In a world where only certain “norm-met-heroic” characters are often celebrated and sit in the cabinet of power, we wanted to take a different approach for the Theatre in Palm project’s roadshow. While planning the Turku roadshow events, we decided to invite emerging artists passionate about applied theatre to apply and share their work.
To do this, we opened a call for the “stories of the forgotten.” Since social impact is one of the themes in Theatre in Palm, we felt this search for narratives was hitting the mark. We aimed to explore two key questions: Whose voices have we not heard, and why? How can we make these stories visible and heard through performances or applied theatre?
From the submissions, we selected two performances that answered these questions: DIANAT and Letters from Europe.
Both performances captivated the audience and sparked discussions from various perspectives. The results were thought-provoking contributions to contemporary art and theatre.
What stood out was how well both works resonated with the present moment, addressing society’s pain points. Why do we continue to deny uncomfortable truths and cling to only the easiest stories? When will we truly turn our gaze to those who have been forgotten?
Photos: Vilma Sappinen, @vilmas.photos
