Asu (A Rhyme for the Stage)

Mother, the first dwelling of a human and the first dress.

Humans are animals with missing fur in need of a protective cover.

Garments protect, cover up, exhibit. Garments are neuroses.

Strip-tease. Strip and tease.

Half-dressed. Not once fully naked. Never fully dressed.

A performance is a garment to slip into, too.

Words as clothing and a cape. Words that undress and seduce. Put into words. It is Dressed up in talk.

The piece Asu (A Rhyme for the Stage) examines dressing and undressing as basic functions of both life and performance.

Katariina Numminen is a dramaturg and director from Helsinki. She has made and shown work since the late 1990s. Numminen is interested in different documentary materials, the limits of fact and fiction, play, improvisation, and the relations and meeting points of sound, voice and text in a performative context. Numminen is one of the founders of the theatre group Viipurin Taiteellinen Teatteri, the performance collective Reality Research Center, and the live art journal Esitys.

Numminen is currently completing her PhD studies at Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her doctoral research topic is “Pause, repetition and gesture as elements of playful dramaturgy.” She has acted as Professor of Dramaturgy at the Academy since 2014.