An experiential performance amid the ecological crisis
Hello friend, this is an invitation to NIGHTSCHOOL.
NIGHTSCHOOL is a voyage into the fantastic November night, whose darkness you will not experience alone. The 15-hour participatory performance, from six o’clock in the evening to nine o’clock in the morning, takes the audience through darkness, art, and transformation, where senses heighten and new connections start to form. The performance creates circumstances to practise how to live together and feel the change.
NIGHTSCHOOL is based on the idea that necessary collective transformation requires both personal unlearning and opening ourselves up to what we do not yet know. It includes an overnight journey, during which you can eat and sleep, and a return home at dawn.
What will you carry into the night?
NIGHTSCHOOL is created by a collective formed in 2014, whose work is conditioned by the reality of the ecological crisis. The collective’s endless project makes time in a world where our time is running out. NIGHTSCHOOL is a continuum of 2021 and 2017 works of the same name. The site-specific performances are created in collaboration with changing venues and guest artists, who will be revealed during the night. The collective is formed by artists Milla Martikainen, Maija Nurmio, Pauli Riikonen and Essi Rossi, who have worked extensively with themes related to the ecological crisis for more than ten years.
WORKING GROUP ARTIST BIOS
Essi Rossi is a director and dramaturg who works in a variety of ways in the fields of theater and the performing arts in Finland and abroad. Since 2024, Rossi has served as the artistic director of Viirus Theater, where their latest work, AF KLINT, premiered in October 2025. Rossi is interested in the potential of the stage in an era of multiple crises, the challenges of change, and desire and sexuality. Rossi’s works have been presented at venues including the National Theater, the Helsinki Festival, Espoo Theater, the Baltic Circle Festival, Von Krahl, the SICK! Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, and on the waters of Lake Saimaa.
Pauli Riikonen is a Helsinki-based sound designer and composer who works primarily in contemporary theater and the performing arts. The starting points for Riikonen’s sound design are the masses of sound, presence, and physical experiences. Riikonen has worked extensively throughout Finland in theater, dance, circus, performance art, radio productions, and music. Internationally, productions he has designed have been staged in India, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and the United States.
Milla Martikainen has over ten years of experience in the performing arts as an artist, educator, and facilitator, in a variety of contexts ranging from the ANTI-live-art festival to the National Theater. She focuses on leveraging expertise in the creative fields to promote an eco-social sustainability transition. In recent years, she has worked, among other roles, as a project coordinator for an initiative promoting sustainability transition in the creative sectors, and she serves as chair of Mustarinda ry and Metsäesitys ry, organizations that promote ecosocial reconstruction through interdisciplinary collaboration between the arts and sciences. Her work has been widely presented in theaters and at performing arts festivals in Finland and internationally.
Maija Nurmio is a Helsinki-based choreographer and dancer who has worked extensively in dance and performance arts in Finland and abroad for over two decades. At the heart of Nurmio’s artistic work is corporeality, accessing its knowledge and vastness. Her work pauses by deep humanity and addresses questions about life and death, human and non-human. Nurmio’s choreographies have been presented in e.g. Kiasma Theatre Helsinki, Vaba Lava Tallinn, Mad House Helsinki, Saint Paul’s Church Limerick, Barker Turku, The Finnish National Theatre, Finnish SOS Children’s Villages and prisons, Üfestudios Berlin, and The Place London.
Laura Kangasniemi is a producer working in the fields of visual and performing arts. She currently works as producer for Teatteritalo Universum and Stage Konepajan. Previously, she worked at the Centre for Performing Arts (ESKUS), coordinating international projects, and as producer for the contemporary dance company Liisa Pentti +Co. She has also contributed to the production of the Emmy-nominated documentary End of the Line – The Women of Standing Rock (USA, 2022). Kangasniemi has produced performances and exhibitions extensively in Finland and internationally, including projects in Uruguay, Italy, and the Nordic countries
Nightschool Kollective: Milla Martikainen, Maija Nurmio, Pauli Riikonen and Essi Rossi
Producer: Laura Kangasniemi
Costume design: Liisa Pesonen
Supported by: The Finnish Arts and Culture Agency, The Niilo Helander Foundation, to-be-revealed main partners