As It Is in Heaven

As It Is in Heaven tells the story of Daniel Daréus, a world-renowned conductor who, after falling ill, has to leave the stages of the wider world and take a step towards a different one. The play is based on Swedish filmmaker Kay Pollak’s successful film Så som i Himmelen (2004). Daniel returns to his quiet home region. In the landscapes of his childhood, space opens up once more to listen to what had previously gone unnoticed. The performance turns the senses towards these sounds—to the landscape flourishing around us, and to the people left at the edges of stories. When Daniel begins conducting the local mixed choir, sounds, emotions and stories smouldering beneath the surface emerge from both the choir and its conductor. Village life becomes a shared music composed of grief, anger, joy and love. As It Is in Heaven is a protest against a polarised world: harmony does not arise from uniformity, but from different voices meeting and contradictions being accepted. It is a warm, humane reminder that we are nothing without a community in which we are seen and loved. The work’s guest designers Jaana Kurttila and Mirkka Nyrhinen of the Roskakatos collective are responsible for set design, as well as costume, makeup and hair design. Oulu-based choir advocate Enni-Maria Lämsä leads the choir. The performance is in Finnish, with English surtitles. Performance rights for the play are represented by Nordic Drama Corner.