Herr Finnland (AT)

Herr Finnland was born in 1982 into a half Austrian half Finnish family and was raised in Salzburg / Austria. After studying in Salzburg he worked as a production manager for Europe’s biggest HIV & AIDS Charity Event the Viennese Life Ball, where he was involved in the opening show. In 2011 he found with a very playful approach the Viennese Immersive Theatre formation Nesterval. Today Herr Finnland’s Nesterval ensemble consists of more than 40 members including performances, (trained and not-trained) actors, dancers and musicians, who embody the story of the Nesterval dynasty in various formations and roles. As director and producer he makes sure that Nesterval also turns the viewer into an integral part of the performance, inviting all of us to ask heavy questions with a disarming lightness and seek for answers in the unlikeliest of places. Beyond the traditional and institutionalised theatre business Herr Finnland works with performers coming mainly from the queer community, and finds new possibilities and expressions in which gender roles and conventions are shifted and broken.

Over the last few years Herr Finnland has produced more than 20 immersive theatre plays, including: The Return of Eleonore Nesterval for steirischer herbst / Festival of New Art 2015; The Last Ball  for imagetanz festival, brut Wien 2016; Dirty Faust (a mash-up of Goethe’s classic and dance films from the 1980s) a brut Wien coproduction, 2017/18; Where the f*** is Alice, 26th Spectrum Theatre Festival, Villach, 2018;  Das Festbankett for Wien Museum, 2019; Eine Sommernachts-Matrix, for Schäxpir Festival, Linz, 2019; Das Dorf a coproduction with brut Wien, 2018/19. In 2019/20 Herr Finnland will have residencies in Spain, Italy and Serbia (as part of the EU-Project BeSpectACTive!) and in September 2019 Anna Liisa Nesterval will premier at the ANTI – Contemporary Arts Festival in Kuopio, Finland.