World premiere of Ovlá opera on Oulu City Theatre’s main stage in January 2026

Oulu City Theatre’s European Capital of Culture programme will feature premieres of the Sámi opera Ovlá, the immersive Faravid’s Land and an international visit of 100% Oulu, which are part of the Oulu2026 cultural programme and cultural climate change. 
 

On 16 January 2026, Sámi opera Ovlá, written by Sámi playwright Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen, will premiere on the main stage of Oulu City Theatre, composed by Cecilia Damström and directed by Oulu City Theatre’s Director Heta Haanperä. Oulu Sinfonia will be serving as the orchestra for the opera, directed by its Chief Conductor Rumon Gamba. 

Ovlá is an opera about the disappearance of truth and about profound loneliness. It tells the story of having one’s roots and cultural heritage torn apart. When a child is separated from their parents and forced into a boarding school, they encounter an unfamiliar language and culture. This experience leads to the trauma of abandonment and isolation. What was once familiar becomes foreign, and the child grows up ashamed of their identity. This sense of alienation forms an identity that offers no peace. 

The production brings to the Main stage of Oulu City Theatre the perspective of the Sámi, the only indigenous people of the Nordic countries, and the painful consequences of state-led oppression that continue to affect new generations of Sámi. 

“Old operas often take a very patriarchal world view, seeing the world through a colonialist lens.” For this reason, I wanted the brand new opera we commissioned for the 2026 programme to be created from a minority perspective. Johansen’s libretto is an a magnificent, deep, even contradictory story about the life of main character Ovlá, and all of its events are either true or could have taken place“, says Alma Lehmuskallio, artistic director of Oulu Theatre. 

“My wish is to contribute to a work of art that highlights hidden aspects of the Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and Russian states’ colonizing behavior towards the Sami people.  I also want to highlight the Sami view of the land – Ovlá lives his life on both the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian side of Sápmi, as many Sami have done and do still. For us, Sápmi is our landscape, and we do not see national borders as very relevant”, says Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen.  

The piece is being composed by Finnish composer Cecilia Damström with consultation from Sámi composer Ánndaris/Anders Rimpi. 

“Working in collaboration with Oulu Sinfonia, we chose Cecilia Damström to compose the music for the opera, because of her ability and will to comment on societal topics with her compositions, as well as the sense of dramaturgy and an open-minded attitude towards the multilingualism of works“, explains Lehmuskallio. 

The music evokes grand and flowing sonic landscapes deeply rooted in Sámi nature. However, beneath the beauty lies a stark narrative of struggle: colonial powers like Finland, have stripped the Indigenous Sámi peoples of their harmonious coexistence with nature, seeking to replace it with industrialisation and institutionalisation. This is reflected in the music, where the natural flow is juxtaposed with rhythm, order, and rigidity. Amid this orchestral dialogue, the authentic voices of Sámi joikers emerge, embodying the resilience of individuals reclaiming an identity stolen from them in childhood.  

The composer, Cecilia Damström, will write the music in close collaboration with Sámi musicians, who will compose all the joiks we hear in the opera. Their joiks will be an integral part of the musical composition to honor their heritage and integrate their voices into a shared musical expression. 

Sámi artists as guest designers

The production features Sámi artists as guest designers: Geir Tore Holm as set designer, Helmi Hagelin as costume designer, and Øystein Heitmann as lighting designer. The sound design is by Jari Niemi from Oulu City Theatre. Emil Kárlsen will be taking on the lead role. 

At the heart of the opera is the sharing of knowledge and taking responsibility for state-led injustices, as well as highlighting the experiences of the Sámi people. While the work critically examines societal structures and discrimination, it also gently focuses on the individual. 

The aim is to broaden understanding of whose stories belong on Finland’s main stages, to enable audiences of a Sámi background to see themselves on stage and to make visible to the general public the history and current situation of our national minority. 

“I am aware that we are operating what is in a sensitive area in this day and age, an area where it is asked, and rightfully so, who has the right to tell whose stories. As representatives of the group who make up the majority of the population, we do not have ownership of Sámi stories, so it was self-evident that the work should be created in sensitive and open cooperation with Sámi artists. We may make mistakes on the way, but fear of this must not prevent different perspectives from taking up space on theatre stages,” emphasises Lehmuskallio. 

There will be 20 performances 16.1.–28.2.2026. The opera is being created in cooperation with Oulu Sinfonia, the Sami National Theatre Beaivváš and Oulu2026. 

Tickets for Ovlá are on sale now!

Diving into a semi-fictional, mythical past of Oulu 

Faravid’s Land combines theatre, dance and circus, creating a semi-fictional, mythical past for Oulu and Northern Finland. The piece will be written by Eira Virekoski and directed by Alma Lehmuskallio and Pirjo Yli-Maunula. 

The premiere will take place on 22 August 2026, in an unprecedented performance space outside the theatre in the city. This large-scale, place-bound and immersive piece will be created in collaboration between Oulu Theatre and Flow Productions.   

Faravid’s Land takes place in the mythical Kvenland. Through its mix of fantasy and imagined realities the work takes on such themes as stories and storytelling, roots, identity, and locality. It tells the tale of ruthless and at times desperate survival. 

In the world of myths, the boroughs of Oulu, well-worn sayings, the spirits and giants of a lost place as well as the local fauna–humans included–are all searching for their origins. To escape Kalevala only to end up in Shit Towne. How? The immersive form gives every viewer the chance to create their own origin myth by following the paths of their choosing. The way is paved in turn by an all-encompassing Darkness and unruly laughter which dispels it.  

“Faravid’s Land is part of the artistic-production collaboration between Oulu Theatre and Flow Productions that began in 2022, which previously created the wonderful production Green Fields in a former school for Deaf people in autumn 2024. I am delighted on behalf of the theatre that we can continue together this highly rewarding series of immersive, place-bound performances with Pirjo Yli-Maunula and Flow,” Lehmuskallio rejoices. 

The initial inspiration for Faravid’s Land was Bengt Pohjanen’s book The Realm of Faravid, a collection of northern folklore. The tale of King Faravid is so riddled with gaps that it brought the team of creators to imagine and create more of this fictional history–as will, eventually, the audience.  

Six Oulu Theatre actors, as well as circus artists and dancers Katariina van Earle, Jared van Earle (AUS), Marta Alstadsæter (NOR), Kim-Jomi Fischer (NL), Emma Langmoen (NOR), Milla Virtanen and Nikke Launonen will appear on the stage. 

Bringing together a top name in European theatre and everyday Oulu residents 

A hundred Oulu residents will step onto the main stage on 14 August 2026 when the piece 100% Oulu premieres, giving a concrete voice to the people of the city. Performers will be selected using a statistical chain reaction to represent the population of the city as comprehensively as possible – as if the whole city in miniature were on stage.  

The concept 100% City was launched in Berlin in 2008 as a concept of documentary theatre group Rimini Protokolli. The first performance took place in Berlin in 2008, since when it has been adapted in over 35 cities around the world. The piece 100% Oulu will be the first implementation of the concept in Finland, offering a theatrical way to get to know the people of Oulu and its present time. 

A hundred volunteer performers will represent the city in constantly changing group images on a large, continuously changing stage. They can be viewed, for example, on the basis of age, address, gender, political orientation, favourite pub, mode of transport or sandwich preferences, and gradually a sea of different voices, the physical structure of the city, is built on the stage. 

“It is wonderful that it will create an encounter between one of the top names in Europe and an ordinary Oulu resident who might not necessarily have even been a theatre-goer. It’s a rare combination. It is fantastic how a group of hundred performers make up a community that would never have come into being anywhere else. Here, you’re likely to meet people you would not otherwise have met. By doing this, it creates something of a connection between people, a connection that would not exist without this performance. I am very interested to see what will emerge from Oulu when the people come and look at this city from a statistical point of view,” says Lehmuskallio. 

Tickets for Faravid’s Land and 100 % Oulu will go on sale at a later date.