How to get everything without doing anything?
The Kiasma Theatre has been a venue for all kinds of circus acts over the years. In September, Circus Maximus celebrating the premiere of its The Best in the World introduces yet another new definition of circus. The director Mikko Kanninen took some time to answer Kiasma Magazine's questions.
Circus Maximus does not really have a great deal to do with traditional circus, now does it - so why the name?
Circus Maximus was founded by four drama students in the student association of the Department of Acting at Tampere University. At the time, there was an article in the University magazine comparing - rather loosely and even facilely - the similarities between the hegemonies formed by the Roman Empire and contemporary Western countries, which included dichotomies such as slaves and technology, and circus and entertainment. The point was that Rome was destroyed even though it saw itself as eternal. The destruction was not a big bang or a collapse but rather a slow decay. Likewise, the Western cultural hegemony has been destroyed or is about to be destroyed because of its own infeasibility. The Circus Maximus hippodrome was one of the last "great" projects of the Roman Empire. The Circus Maximus theatre aims to be the "greatest show" in the time of our apocalypse.
The Best in the World talks of the "Las Vegasation" of the world. What is the term all about?
"Las Vegasation" is a term used by many, primarily American, thinkers to widely demarcate different ideological currents, the form of which is the same, present in contemporary societies. Mainly it refers to the general zeitgeist and the question of how to get everything without having to do anything. It is equally about the values of companies being changed into mere default values, the Pop Idol competition as a selection process for musicians, "Who wants to be a film star" reality shows as actor training, the poker boom, a diminishing appreciation of education and refinement, politics turning into a Pop Idol competition - that is, the overall increase in focus on entertainment in society and its concurrent transformation into a "Las Vegas". In the background there is the realisation of the capitalist dream; everything is quantifiable nowadays, up for gambling and buying.
One of the main themes of the performance is gambling addiction. What does it refer to?
For example, business life, trade, chemistry, religion, the art world, politics, relationships ... and, of course, gambling.
The subheading of the show contains the words virtual and cyborg. What do they refer to?
Las Vegas is virtual, a pure virtual manifestation of the idea of America. If you want to virtually experience America in a day, you should fly to Las Vegas! There, cyborgs are attached to gambling tables and machines and even deeper are at one in the very core of machine and an idea.
Usually these two terms have a very negative and desolate ring. We are trying to examine the revolutionary, positive and life-affirming qualities of the virtual and cybernetics.
How would you describe The Best in the World in the context of performing arts, is it traditional theatre or something else?
It is theatre if the art form is perceived as a collective action between artists with various backgrounds.
The Best in the World aims at defining itself outside the traditional or prevailing view of the performing arts by trying to get closer to more historical forms of theatre, maybe even opera. But it does contain speech as well.
-Jonna Strandberg
