Metamorphosis – An evening of two performances
Rimpparemmi’s spring 2025 season offers two new premieres as Sari Palmgren’s “Forbidden Movements” meets Matti Paloniemi’s “Male Live” on the same evening. The event is titled “Metamorphosis.”
Male Live
“It’s said that men don’t cry. But have you seen when, in the last hours before dawn, Ville Peltonen’s three-goal night is scrolled up on YouTube? At that moment, when the puck inevitably finds the back of the net for the third time, there’s shouting, ‘there it rests’, and phrases are stretched out in sync with Mertaranta. Samu stands with a solitary tear in his eye.”
Male Live is a series of snapshots from the world of men. It depicts images and feelings of being a man and the absence thereof. What is a man? What are the many roles of a man? Male is one of the legal genders. What else?
This performance delves deeply into the complexities of masculinity and how the male role is experienced and seen in our society. It emphasizes how the role of a man does not emerge from nothing. It is not merely biology or “natural” but is built from expectations, relationships, and life experiences.
This piece tells how masculinity can be delicate or even painful, yet also full of bursts of joy and clatter. Male Live is a thought-provoking look into the essence of manhood and how norms shape our perception of masculinity.
“Those who say men don’t cry are usually men. They say it’s not characteristic of men. But the men who don’t cry, they are the ones who are really messed up. Or maybe they are just normal, good guys. Stable and calm, like men are supposed to be.”
Performers: Atte Herd, Joni Kuokkanen, and Jukka Nurmela
Choreography and Direction: Matti Paloniemi
Sound Design and composing: Lauri Uusitalo
Texts: Jyri Ollila
Costume Design: Mirkka Nyrhinen
Lighting Design: Janne Teivainen
Forbidden Movements
Forbidden Moves is a thought-provoking and absurdly humorous performance about the boundaries of the body, movement, mind, and memories.
What moves us? What holds us back?
“You mustn’t leave mushrooms in the forest. You mustn’t stomp. Don’t be like your mother. Don’t ski without a hat. Don’t stare. Don’t sit with your legs too far apart. Don’t be too much.”
We are guided by rules we didn’t create. Whose voice repeats the warnings, the old truths, and inherited fears in our heads? In the shadows of the mind sit those who claim to know better—those who whisper warnings before we even dare to cross the line. But who drew that line?
This performance dives into the prohibitions given to us—and those we’ve taken on ourselves. What happens when the body does what it shouldn’t? When movement becomes inappropriate, strange, playful? When the mind moves freely? When memories take over?
In the storeroom of the mind lie a schoolyard. Grandpa’s rubber boots. An unresolved argument. Lemonade in the sauna. Tears of longing. The threat of violence. A bucket of cloudberries. Forbidden gestures, words, thoughts—everything pushed aside and… the Macarena.
You must not act. You must not see. You must not remember. But if you forget, someone will surely remind you.
Performers: Helmi Järvensivu, Laura Kallas, and Kaisa Ristiluoma
Choreography and Direction: Sari Palmgren
Music: Kaisa Ristiluoma
Sound Design: Lauri Uusitalo
Costume Design: Mirkka Nyrhinen
Lighting Design: Janne Teivainen