On Black and White Thresholds – A Story Told with Poetry and Music

An achingly beautiful collection of poetry “On Black and White Thresholds” (På svartvita trösklar, 2013) by Elsa Boström, is performed in English, Swedish and Finnish at the Finn-Brit Players’ NoName Theatre on Monday and Tuesday 26 & 27th October, at 19.00 – 19.40.

By offering a “mixed language” performance we want to show that we live in a European, international & multicultural capital city and that we are proud of our “home” languages. We believe that our audience will appreciate the subtleties and changes that language brings. In our reading, the Finnish translations amount to about 15% of the text, the rest is equally divided between English and Swedish. 

The poetry collection is sensual, with the blue notes of blues flowing through its three parts:

• The setting for the first part is Berghäll / Kallio in the late 1950s. A young woman meets black musician James from Louisiana, he sings blues in bars and clubs. They fall in love but are surrounded by threats and fear. The love story ends when James is run over by a car. The woman cannot cope with the loss, she breaks down and is hospitalised. 
• In the second part of the collection, the woman is in a psychiatric hospital. She slowly finds her path to health, and most importantly, her own voice. 
• In the third part of the collection, the woman wants to start living life on her own terms. She discovers that her thoughts and feelings are legitimate. 

Short intro to the team:

• Vivi-Ann Hakalax is the “glue”, the producer, the “fairy godmother”, the driving force of the performance. The collection has been translated to English by Jocelyn Harding (assisted by Vivan) and to Finnish by Tom Östling. 
• The poems are interpreted by Mira Berglund-Fitzpatrick, and music played by John Millar (multi-instrumentalist) and Anthony Shaw (guitar). 

Please note that the event takes place at the Finn-Brit Players’ NoName Theatre, Korkeavuorenkatu 17, opposite Johanneksen Kirkko in the centre of Helsinki. The Finn-Brit Players are ensuring your safety by inviting only 50% capacity of guests, ask you to keep your distance in the premises, recommend use of face masks and using hand disinfectant at entry.

Come and join us for an impactful poetry reading session, an evening full of intense emotions!

Get your ticket via here: https://www.finnbritplayers.com/tix. You may also contact the Finnbrit office – we are supporting the Finn-Brit Players by giving a few tickets to our members, customers and volunteers.