Faravid’s Land

The performance Faravid’s Land, which intertwines theatre, contemporary circus and contemporary dance, is set in Oulu’s legendary Raksila market district. In its heyday, the area even surpassed Helsinki’s Stockmann in grocery sales. Now the Eka-market building has reached the end of its useful life and is set to be demolished. In its place, a long-awaited new source of happiness and pride will rise: an experience arena, a centre promising bliss and vitality for all of northern Finland. So could the source of Oulu’s happiness be lurking in Raksila? Is this where it was buried?

Faravid’s Land is a journey from the remains of the market to ancient Northern Ostrobothnia, and a myth about seekers and keepers of happiness. What is happiness, really? In this dreamlike experience, your guide might be Akka-Queen, master of old and new spells; Kärppä, a local power animal; or Kaamos itself. The mythological fiction and fascinating creatures of the work’s world meet a market building that has seen better days, where the histories of Sale, Alko and flea-market activity also echo.

Faravid’s Land invites audiences not only to be awed by the skills of 14 actors, dancers and circus artists, but also to cast spells for good fortune, ward off misfortune, bid farewell to the Raksila market and welcome a crooked, pre-experience-arena experience arena. Eternal questions and mythical landscapes unfold throughout the emptied building in this immersive performance, where audiences are free to choose their own path towards fulfilment—a pursuit approached cunningly, conjured grandly and silently felt ashamed of.

A myth is a story or belief that explains things for which there is no firsthand knowledge or whose truth cannot be proven. Happiness is a wondrous thing, and according to statistics there is a great deal of it in the City of Oulu.

Faravid’s Land is written by Eira Virekoski and directed by Alma Lehmuskallio and Pirjo Yli-Maunula. The production is a co-production by Oulun teatteri and Flow Productions, in collaboration with Oulu2026 and still still (NED).