CUTTING EDGE by Kalle Nio - WHS in Lisbon

CUTTING EDGE de Kalle Nio - WHS (Finland)

Having passed through the São Luiz in 2014 with Lähtö | Départ, in the framework of FIMFA Lx14 - International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms, Kalle Nio returns to Lisbon.

A partnership between São Luiz Teatro Municipal and A Tarumba - Teatro de Marionetas

Portuguese Premiere

1 and 2 April 2017 

São Luiz Teatro Municipal - Sala Luís Miguel Cintra

Saturday at 9pm – Sunday at 5.30pm

1 April: conversation with the artists – after the show

€12 - €15 (discounts €5 - €10,50)
For Adults | Running Time: 65 min
Tickets online - São Luiz Teatro Municipal

Cutting Edge is a visual theatre performance taking it’s inspiration from the historical paintings, images and myths about decapitations and old tricks of stage magicians. The oldest documented magic trick is by the ancient magician Dedi who performed for Pharaoh Khufu. The story tells he could cut a head of an animal and put it back together. The trick of decapitation has been in the repertory of magicians ever since. At the same time history tells us that it is within our capacity to commit, to accept, to watch and even to enjoy the spectacle of real beheading. Cutting Edge takes it’s starting point from the act of beheading, and through 13 separate tableaux, the show raises a question about the presence of human body and it’s life and death. Cutting Edge balances between creating and destroying illusions.

On the stage there are three persons, two woman and one man. Their strong physical presence, movements and bodies will mix together and will be cut into pieces by the ways of stage illusions.

The style of the show is balancing between dark humor and minimalistic tragedy. By jumping from style to another the performance takes very twisted and dark look into these horrible images and makes a combination of magic show, baroque theatre, contemporary dance, punk and visual arts.

Cutting Edge from WHS on Vimeo.

"Impressive are many of the magic tricks, the bodies that are moved from one place to another, a thin veil of plastic that turns into a rolling sea. In these moments, you can just sit and let yourself be deceived by illusions, be impressed by the technical competence, the ingenious lighting design and the responsiveness of the bodies.”
Kalle Nio skilfully spreads stocks of humour, kitsch and cultural references. Nio screws often up the gothic and elevated to the max, but without drowning the show in pathos.”
-Isabella Rothberg, Hufvudstadbladet

“Decapitated head is challenging particularly the western thinking based on separation of mind and body, and makes you question the violent and inhuman brutal side of our culture.”
The impressiveness of the work is in the enchantment of magic, the oldest of circus arts, and in the staging of the iconography of art history by living, bodily and moving images in the tradition of tableaux vivants.”
“Cutting Edge ingeniously brings out the entanglement of history of violence with different cultures.”
-Mia Hannula, Turun Sanomat

“The uniform expression of the performers creates vivid visions of the act of cutting head inside the frame created by the virtuoso sound, light and set design.”
Cutting Edge is bringing into display the echoes of humanity, which we would rather not be listening.”
-Taika Dahlbom, Helsingin Sanomat

Directed by: Kalle Nio Performers: Inês Campos, Vera Selene Tegelman, Jukka Tarvainen Lighting design: Jere Mönkkönen, Joonas Tikkanen Set design: Kalle Nio, Taneli Rautiainen Set and prop construction: Taneli Rautiainen Stage mechanics: Jere Mönkkönen, Taneli Rautiainen, Joonas Tikkanen Sound design: Samuli Kosminen, Kalle Nio Music: Samuli Kosminen, Inês Campos, Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans, Charlemagne Palestine: Ssingggg Sschlllingg Sshppping Stage technicians: Taneli Rautiainen, Johannes Hallikas Costumes: Kaisa Rissanen, Mila Moisio Dramaturg: Henriikka Himma Videos: Kalle Nio Texts: Kalle Nio, includes cuttings from Wikipedia, Roman Polanski, Frances Larson, Nicholas Terpstra, Oscar Wilde, Richard Clark
Production: Kalle Nio / WHS Coproduction: Helsinki Festival / Helsingin Juhlaviikot; La Brèche, Pôle National des Arts du Cirque de Basse-Normandie, France; Trident – Scène Nationale de Cherbourg-Octeville, France; Mala performerska scena / Festival novog cirkusa – Zagreb, Croatia Kumu Art Museum, Estonia; Cirko – Center for New Circus, Finland; São Luiz Teatro Municipal With support of: Alfred Kordelin Foundation; Kone Foundation; Finnish Cultural Foundation; Arts Promotion Centre Finland; Fondation d’entreprise Hermès within the framework of the New Settings programme

BIO
Kalle Nio has graduated from The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. As a magician Nio has specialised in developing new tricks and new kinds of magic. His inventions have been published in the most important professional magic publications such as the MAGIC-Magazine. In 2000 he won the third price in the world championships of magic (FISM) in the Inventions category. In addition to his work as a magician, Nio has worked as a director, editor and animator in TV programs, commercials and short films.
Presently the company of Kalle, WHS, works in Teatteri Union, an old cinema theatre in the center of Helsinki that won the city’s prize for the best cultural event 2014.
WHS is a visual theatre / contemporary circus group from Finland. The productions of the group have been a crucial factor behind the rise of Finnish new circus that has rapidly occurred in the past decade.
The circus group has grown known for the juggling style of Walo that balances on the boundary surfaces between juggling and puppetry, and the scale of expression of Nio that reaches from visual arts to magic.
The group has taken their performances in many different places throughout the world, visiting over a hundred world-famous festivals, circuses, theatres and puppet theatres.