October 6, 2025
Opening performance November 24: Encounters. Oslo
How do you speak with a stranger when you cannot see their face?
We are pleased to present this year's opening performance, Monday, November 24: Encounters. Oslo by The Feminist Secret Society of Helsinki (FSSH) .
How do you speak with a stranger when you cannot see their face? Could a live, faceless conversation open the way to more intimate and authentic communication? What does it mean to represent someone else? Is representation the same as acting? These are questions explored in Encounters. Oslo .
Encounters. Oslo is both a performance and a genuine first meeting between two participating teenagers. On stage, two performers are wired to two hidden teenagers. Invisible to the audience, to the performers, and to each other, the young participants speak freely while the performers repeat – word for word, through microphones and earpieces – everything they say. The performers lend their voices and bodies to create an unscripted, authentic conversation. In Oslo, we meet Nosizwe Baqwa and Cecilie Solberg on stage. The teenagers remain anonymous.
In this way, Encounters. Oslo allows young people to speak openly and unfiltered, while their words are simultaneously mediated through another body and voice.
What kinds of power relations then emerge – between the audience, the performers, and the anonymous participants?
The Feminist Secret Society of Helsinki (FSSH) is a collective of artists creating performances and other interventions in shifting constellations – both among its members and with guest artists: actors Iida-Maria Heinonen, Saara Kotkaniemi and Kreeta Salminen; writers and theatre-makers Amanda Palo and Olga Palo; and multidisciplinary artist and researcher Katri Naukkarinen. FSSH has produced performances, workshops, publications, and more.
Encounters premiered at Madhouse Helsinki in 2018. Since then, the performance has been presented at the Helsinki City Theatre’s Stage for Contemporary Performance, the Sanoin Festival in Helsinki, Finland, and the Sirenos Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, among other places.