Freelance Finnish theatre director Kristian Smeds (1970) has visited Homo Novus festival already twice – bringing the performance – rock ballad Voyczek in 2003 and the Orthodox legend The Wanderer in 2005. Now he is one of the leading and internationally most acknowledged Finnish theatre directors who has staged performances in Finland , as well as in Lithuania and Estonia .
After studying directing and dramaturgy at the Theatre Academy of Finland in the early 1990s Smeds founded the Takomo Theatre in Helsinki in 1996 and was the highly acclaimed artistic director of the Kajaani City Theatre 2001-2004. Together with his friends – voice artist Juha Valkepää, graphic designer Tero Nauha and radio DJ and light designer Pietu Pietiainen – Kristian established an informal company Houkka Bros, which has produced two performances – the Orthodox legend The Wanderer (2005) and the lesser musical about the life of Francis of Assisi Children, Birds and Flowers (2006). The solo performance of Lithuanian actress Aldona Bendoriute Sad Songs from the Heart ofEurope staged by Kristian Smeds in 2006 after the famous novel by Dostoyevski Crime and Punishment has got an international recognition.
The Seagull is the second collaboration of Smeds with the Von Krahl Theatre in Tallinn – in 2006 he staged there The Year of the Hare by Finnish author Arto Paasilinna.
Be it multi-layered big stage productions as Voyczek or Three Sisters in Kajaani Theatre or intimate religious stories told for the small audience by Houkka Bros, Smeds’s performances accumulate sharp and deep thought and drastic Finnish temperament in the same time. He has a gift to discover a new content in usual things and conventional plots. And Smeds’s specific sense of humor is never missing.
At present Kristian Smedss together with Ville Hyvönen and Eeva Bergroth have established a new international and networking theatre group – Smeds Ensemble . It is a production unit which functions as a meeting forum for Finnish and international artists. Co-operation has been planned with major Finnish festivals and theatres, and also various organisations in Brussels , Tallinn , Vilnius , Linz and Budapest .
The Von Krahl Theatre was established in 1992 by the initiative of the current theatre director, Peeter Jalakas. Von Krahl started to operate as a so-called project theatre without a permanent company or support from the state or local government in the 'black-box' spaces of a former public theatre, repaired with minimum resources. Since 1998 when Von Krahl was reorganised, the theatre has had its own permanent company of six actors. Since 1998 the theatre has received regular activity support from the state.
Approximately four large productions are brought to the stage annually; one of them is usually a larger-scale international production. In addition smaller (music) performances, projects and happenings are also staged during the season. The theatre gives approximately 100-150 performances a year.
The common feature of the Von Krahl Theatre has been the urge to combine different forms of media and art and the understanding that contemporary theatre has to communicate through contemporary language with contemporary audiences.
The principal projects of the Von Krahl Theatre in recent years have been The Grail! (2001), Swan Lake (2003), and Estonian Ballads (2004). The Von KrahlTheatre already twice has visited Homo Novus festival with the productions Estonian Games. Wedding (1999) and Swan Lake (2003).