Our farewell to human-centeredness is at the same time lighthearted and wistful when the turbulent journey towards chaos begins!

What to expect? Odd creatures and metamorphoses! Poetry breathing and screaming in animated matter! Unpredictable logic of flowing water! The Difficult Life of Hamilton the Manatee is damp, ragged and curious contemporary puppet theatre for adults.

Based on an anthology by the award-winning poetry pioneer Tommi Parkko, this rare gem was created on a journey to the Arctic Ocean, in traffic jams of the highways and in stunning wilderness landscapes, with chaos as the driving force. After the corona pandemic put a brand new chaos gear in the eye, the premiere of The Difficult Life of Hamilton the Manatee was postponed six times! The ready play was never performed publicly, but in the end a unique poetry film was made based on the performance in April 2021.

Now the working group spins the piece around once more and brings a completely new variation to the festival. The Difficult Life of Hamilton the Manatee might be funny but not in a cheery way. It stares a little too long into the formless, indulges in escapist fantasies and asks: what is the unknown in us?

WORKING GROUP: Maiju Tainio, Jarkko Forsman, Antti-Juhani Manninen, Riikka Mellin, Sirpa Järvenpää, Reetta Moilanen, Jussi Virkkumaa, Heikki J. Järvi

duration: 1h 20min language: suomi age recommendation: for adults (14 +)