Prepare to be amazed – and possibly a little unsettled. Celebrating its tenth anniversary, SAMPO Festival returns to Helsinki from 26 to 30 August with an international programme of visual theatre from Canada, France, Italy, Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe.
Hands transform into strange creatures, everyday objects spring to life and a miniature camera magnifies the action onto a large screen. Canadian company SNAFU’s Epidermis Circus is certainly not conventional puppetry. In fact, it promises to be the strangest puppet show you’ll ever see.
Performed by Ingrid Hansen, the surreal puppetry cabaret has attracted attention around the world. A video published in collaboration with SAMPO Festival has already been viewed more than a million times on Instagram.
Another major production in the anniversary programme is Pinocchio(live)#3 by the French company Compagnie s’Appelle Reviens. Directed by Alice Laloy, the performance sees children gradually transformed into puppets. Through movement and striking visual illusions, its startling stage world explores growing up, freedom and finding your own voice.
Italian company Teatro del Drago’s Golem – e fango è il mondo examines flooding and humanity’s relationship with the forces of nature through puppetry, video projections and animation. The production won the Venice Biennale’s competition for young directors and premiered at the Biennale in 2025.
The festival will also welcome a group of Ukrainian puppeteers graduating from Kyiv’s theatre university. Their production Behind the Mask reflects on contemporary life and experiences shaped by war. The group’s director, Kateryna Lukianenko, describes the visit as an opportunity to work, for a moment, in ‘a safe space for art’.
Performances for adults, teenagers and children will take place across Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.