Undergrowth

(The forest of my father)

My father is a forest-owner. Since I was a child I have known of a special “grieving spruce” in our forest, that was officially protected by the father of my father. Last winter I asked my father to show it to me once more, so that I could show him showing it to you, even if we are in another country and in another forest.
The grieving spruce grows in a forest planted over eighty years ago, so by law and convention the forest it inhabits will soon be cut for timber and paper, before being re-planted. What will happen to the tree when it’s neighbours are cut down? What happens to my father when he sells the tree trunks? What happens to me when I inevitably inherit some of the woods from my to be deceased father?
Undergrowth is a documentary theatre essay about my personal relationship to my fathers personal relationship to his forests relationship to the laws of supply and demand and nature. A forest can be sold, but can it really be owned?

Performed in:
2021 Proces-festival, DAMU, Prague
2022 Kunratecký les, Prague
2022 Plzěn Festival Divadlo

_{^{Photos: Vít Štaif, Map: Maanmittauslaitos}}

Author, performer: Valtteri Alanen
Dramaturg, performer: Eglė Šimėnaitė
Scenorgaphy, co-creator: Kayako Takahashi
Videography: Chun Shing Au

Mentor: Sodja Zupanc Lotker
Interviewees: Harri Alanen, Veera Alanen