Finnish Acts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

This year Finland is represented by three Finnish acts at the Fringe: hit plays Continuous Growth and My Elevator Days and a unique show by a cappella group FORK.

Continuous Growth – A Comedy about Productivity is produced by Ryhmäteatteri, Finland's oldest independent theatre. The play is written by Finland's leading playwrights and directors Esa Leskinen and Sami Keski-Vähälä. It tells a story of Andy (Billy Mack), an automation engineer, husband and father. His firm is sold to the Japanese and Andy is fired. After a failed business enterprise Andy ends up in a mental institution. Instead of giving up, he comes up with a new idea to develop – this time a more successful one. The play premiered in Finland in 2011. It is directed by Aleksis Meaney, who is half Finnish, half Scottish. The play is translated by Nely Keinanen and the Scottish adaptation is by Catherine Govern.

Produced by Svenska Teatern (The Swedish Theatre in Helsinki), My Elevator Days is a tragicomic monologue of a man reflecting on his life: his dog who loved poetry, his visit to a sex club, his lifelong affection to Grace Kelly, and his mysterious meeting with a girl named Diana. The man aims his words, by turns, at the audience and at the elevator, his only companion. The play is the work of Bengt Ahlfors (born 1937), one of the leading playwrights in Scandinavia, who directed the first production of My Elevator Days in 2006 in Helsinki, where it is still running. For the Edinburgh debut Ahlfors will also be taking the lead role.

Finnish a cappella group FORK returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a stripped down, intimate production. In their shows, internationally renowned FORK combine various forms of stage art: music, stand-up, theatre, dance and light show. The performance consists of songs from Lady Gaga, Queen, Madonna and Led Zeppelin, among others. Since their debut, FORK have been touring and performing at countless venues and events, from Monaco to Dubai.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe started to take shape in 1947 when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival. Since 1959 the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has welcomed all performers, and it has become the largest arts festival in the world. Every August thousands of performers take to a multitude of stages all over Edinburgh. The festival brings together big names and unknown artists and includes theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, music, exhibitions and other events.

Continuous Growth – A Comedy About Productivity
1–27 August 2012 12.10pm
Pleasance Dome, Potterow, 1 Bristol Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AL

My Elevator Days
1–27 August 2012 (except 13 & 20) 12.30pm
Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ

FORK: Electro Vocal Circus
2–26 August 2012 (except 14) 22.25pm
Assembly, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LH

2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe website: www.edfringe.com