Jane in Finland: Wednesday October 27 - Time to be scared

A word of warning - "time to scared" is not a direct translation but it's an accurate description of what I felt when I saw Hannibal chewing on some delicious looking flesh and a character from Texas Chainsaw Massacre running out with a chainsaw into the audience.

Before I go into what I thought about the performance, here is a link about the concert. yes, it's a Finnish page but you can click on the English version and read away :)

*Deep breath* Firstly, it felt great to be back in a theater. The city theater here is a bit bigger than the Shoctor Theater at the Citadel so it made me feel back in Canadian proportions. Since this was a Halloween special, the theater staff was dressed in costume and the wine reception table was decorated in a vampire style. The combination of those things really set the mood. I was really excited to see some costumes on display from a play that was performed last season. They were so ... black. The typical Finnish theater and art seems to be dark and somber.
Tanja and I had a really cool discussion about theater vs movies and although she doesn't frequent the theater that often (2-3 times a YEAR), she gave a pretty darn good explanation of how it differs from film. "Theater gives you more room to imagine." She is so right I realized. Film is a creative art form all in itself for the creator but theater is much more allowing and challenging for the spectator. Why do most people choose to see a movie instead of a play? Because it's easier. Less thinking from your part, everything in film is cut, pasted and thought out for you. In theater, you have more space (literally) to create your own images and angles; the music slows for different people at different times and not everyone will come away with the same meaning because there is no voice over telling you what the moral is. When we first got on the topic of theater, I noticed myself straighten in my chair and a wide smile spread across my lips. I must be in the right field if merely talking about brings me smiles and happiness.
We went into the show and were first exposed to the Hannibal experience that I described earlier. A bigger surprise was that after having his snack, Hannibal turned into the maestro of the symphony. Talk about sudden turn of events. The members of the symphony had awesome outfits. They all looked like their hair and makeup had been inspired by Tim Burton. One violinists looked especially like Johnny Depp did in Sweeney Todd.
The music itself was a very similar in nature which could be expected but what i didn't expect was to not be able to tell where the music from The Ring stopped and music from The Shinning started. The only piece that was distinct was "The Knife" from Psycho. The maestro cleverly conducted that part with a nice 9 inch butcher knife.
All in all, a fitting spooky experience for a country that started recognizing Halloween as an event some mere years back.
*Breathe out*