Theater News

Peter Franzén to Star in Sofi Oksanen’s Purge at La MaMa

Publicity art for Purge
Publicity art for Purge

Peter Franzén will be featured in the American premiere of award-winning Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen’s Purge, to play La MaMa, February 10-20, with an opening on February 11. Zishan Ugurlu will direct.

Through the stories of two women dogged by their own shameful past, Purge deals with a chapter in Estonia’s history which is on the verge of being forgotten or denied: the Soviet annexation of the country after World War II, and its accompanying effects of rape, torture, deportation and murder.

The play also features La MaMa’s ensemble-based resident theater company Actors Without Borders – International Theater of New York (ITONY). It is translated from Finnish by Eva Buchwald, and features design by Ugurlu, costume design by Oana Botez Ban, lighting design by Tsubasa Kamei, and sound design by Fernando Arruda.

In addition to the performance of Purge, La MaMa will present Actors Without Borders (ITONY) in Arresting Symmetries: Finland in Translation — a stage reading of three Finnish plays to take place on Saturday, February 12 at 2 PM. The plays will include Arto Salminen’s The Stockroom and Sirkku Peltola’s Happy to Stand (both translated by Eva Buchwald and directed by Mikko Viherjuuri), and Mika Myllyaho’s Panic – Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (translated by Sarka Hantula and directed by Zishan Ugurlu). A Q&A session will follow the reading of each play.

For more information, click here.