Director Juha Malmivaara got the Eino Kalima prize earlier this year

Animalis examines the relationship between animals and men

Animalis is a fascinating composition of fictional and historical elements, with episodes set in Europe and the New World between 1546 and 1735 – the world before Charles Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory.

Animalis is a collasion of images from a world filled with uncertainty, new discoveries and new ways of thinking. Both the world and humankind are facing a transformation. This change is a mysterious phenomenon also for the scientists at the dawn of the New World.

Is the anthropocentric view of the world really changing? How has our relationship with animals changed during the history? What role do myths, fairytales and religions have? Are animals capable of suffering? What does an animal’s gaze tell us?

The play has several characters: Armenian silk maker, Queen and her raven, Renaissance humanist and writer Francois Rabelais, Katariina from Lapland, peasants struggling with plague, Maria Merian, pioneer in entomology and ecological thinking, philosopher Descartes’ maid Helena Jans, slave Alzira living by the rainforest.