What if Tampere were ruled by a dictatorship?

When considering his future theater direction, professor Esa Kirkkopelto decided that the acting students' artistic thesis project in the fall of 2025 must be political!

Taantumus (Regression) performance depicts the lives of young adults under extreme control, where, among other things, freedom of expression is prohibited and dissidents and minorities are persecuted.

"Originally, the idea was to depict a real-life dictatorship on stage, such as Greece's recent history. Then I realized that the events had to be transferred to the present day," Kirkkopelto explains.

Return to political theater 

Directing Taantumus means return to political theater for Kirkkopelto. The themes of his productions have been political since the 1990s, when his works focused on the history of socialism and anarchy. The reason for directing this play is not solely political, nor is it because the 1990s are in vogue.

“I have been troubled by the fact that I was unable to respond in any way to Estonia's liberation in the early 1990s, and this performance is a kind of belated expression of solidarity,” says Kirkkopelto.  

Director Esa Kirkkopelto and dramaturge Asta Honkamaa visited Tallinn in the spring of 2025 to interview people who had experienced the Soviet dictatorship. In addition, the working group has studied a wide range of material about life in Soviet Estonia and other dictatorships. Honkamaa wrote the play (in Finnish) based on the interviews and text material produced by acting students.

"The play got its name from the fact that world politics is currently experiencing a wave of regression and a return to systems that were thought to have been left behind. For example, Russia has slipped into dictatorship, and Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia, and the United States are on the same worrying path", says Kirkkopelto, continuing:

"It feels like history is moving backwards."

Hope is found from solidarity

The performance shows what everyday life and survival are like for ordinary people under a dictatorship. The work seeks to touch on the dimension of hope, which is believed to be found in everyday life and human solidarity. Although the performance depicts a fictional situation, the emotional reality strives to be authentic. The seeds of the situation depicted are in the air and recognizable.

"In this sense, Finland's history is different from Estonia's, because Finland has not been under similar oppression, nor has it experienced a similar liberation. The performance depicts both oppression and liberation, which is a moment of positive patriotism. However, the question remains as to what we are being liberated from. Does liberation bring the happiness it promises, and where could liberation come from at this moment?", Kirkkopelto asks.

“This performance connects young actors to the agenda of liberation and the demand for a democratic society and justice,” says Kirkkopelto.

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