With its impressive variety of theater, Finland is a superpower of performing arts. Finnish theater, however, is presently a hotbed of cultural debate regarding the artistic quality of its performances. This comprehensive overview of contemporary theater explores many of the most contentious questions concerning applied theater, its devised methods, and the corresponding challenges presented to traditional definitions of theater and related arts. Through interviews with new writers and directors, and first-hand accounts of recent performances, this study attempts to define what it means today to say “Finnish theater.” It also addresses issues concerning Finland’s emergence as a cultural player within the European Union and implications for its evolving national identity.

This study analyses the Finnish National Theatre’s activities throughout the decades during which the post-war generation with its new societal and theatrical views was rising to power, and during which Europe, divided by the Iron Curtain, was maturing to break the boundaries dividing it. Pirkko Koski summarizes the activities of the Finnish National Theatre as a cultural factor and as a part of the Finnish theatre field during 1970s and 1980s. Alongside this he examines the general requirements, resources and structures for activity, including artists, places, geographical position, performances and the analysis on the societal conditions. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of European theatre and history.

A wide-ranging set of essays that explain what theatre history is and why we need to engage with it.

Examining the ways in which national theatres have formed and evolved over time, this new collection highlights the difficulties these institutions encounter today, in an environment where nationalism and national identity are increasingly contested by global, transnational and local agendas, and where economic forces create conflicting demands.

This book presents an expert analysis of the transnational aspects of Finnish cinema throughout its history. As a small nation cinema, Finnish film culture has, even at its most nationalistic, always been attached to developments in other film producing nations in terms of production and distribution as well as genres and aesthetics. Recent developments in film theory offer exciting new approaches and methodologies for the study of transnational phenomena in the field of film culture, both past and present. The authors employ a wide range of cutting edge methodologies in order to address the major issues involved in transnational approaches to film culture. Until recently, much of this research has focused on globalization and questions related to diasporic cinema, while transnational issues related to small nation film cultures have been marginalized. This study focuses on how small nation cinemas have faced the dilemma of contributing to the construction and maintenance of national culture and identity, while responding to audience tastes largely shaped by foreign cinemas. With Finland’s intriguing political placement between East and West, along with the high portion of film history preserved in Finnish archives, this thoroughly contextualized multidisciplinary analysis of Finnish film history serves as an illuminating case study of the transnational aspects of small nation cinemas.

Theatre Worlds in Motion aims to clarify the different theatre traditions and practices in Western Europe from a historical and sociological perspective. The book grew out of a perceived need among theatre scholars who had recognised that, while they understood the theatre system of their own country, they often found it difficult to discover how it compared with other countries. The chapters analyse the basic components and dynamics of theatre systems in seventeen Western European nations in order to elucidate how the systems function in general and how they vary in different cultures. The book provides a sense of what has been happening recently in particular countries, and indicates how the theatre systems have developed over time and have led to the current practices and structures. Each national chapter considers the historical tradition and place of theatre within the country and analyses the role of the state in fostering theatre during the last fifty years. Material from the national chapters has been used in two general chapters at the beginning and end of the book to provide an overview to developments in all Western Europe. The introductory chapter on decentralisation discusses the tendency amongst governments to encourage cultural development outside the national capital by providing subsidy for regional theatre venues and theatre companies and, in many cases, by developing the decision-making and budgetary powers for the theatre to regional and local authorities. The epilogue on the functioning of theatre examines the common structures of theatre in society as described in the seventeen national chapters, and it proposes areas for future research.