GÄNG – a guided city tour is a recent production of the National Youth Theatre, which gives the form of a traditional theater performance a shout.
It’s starting to happen in Helsinki’s Rautatietorri at 8 o’clock in the morning. The audience who came to watch the _GÄNG ‒ guided city tour_ performance has been given headphones, the sound world of which initially tells about the observation of the urban space and surveillance cameras.
People of different looks, styles and sizes leap across Rautatietor, and the guessing begins. Since _GÄNG_ takes place in a public space, at the very beginning it is difficult to tell which element belongs to the performance itself and which does not: the acted and the real melt into each other.
As you can see from above, the latest project of the Kantti – Youth National Theatre, which operates next to the National Theatre, is not exactly from the most ordinary end. Now we move on the terms of young people and public space and look at young people’s experiences of urban space and society.
– The topic of the performance is so much about being in a public space that it would have been quite a ruckus if such an ensemble had been taken inside the theater. It would have been impossible to bring the tension created by the public space alone into the interior, Teixeira Neves continues.
GÄNG is aimed at everyone
The _GÄNG ‒ guided city tour_ performance is based on research material and has been built, made and scripted by eleven 16-23-year-old youth and young adults.
– It’s a really good feeling now, it was nice to finally be able to complete the whole thing from start to finish.
– It’s been great to see how this project has gradually taken shape into a clear whole, because we started doing it in small pieces, Zitting agrees.
According to the young actors, the message of the show is clear.
According to Happonen, Huotari and Zitting, Helsinki is generally a good place for young people to live.
– There are things for young people to do, places to hang out and friends here, Zitting sums up.
According to the observations of Joel Teixeira Neves, however, the relationship of young people to society is characterized by reactivity: economic status brings power and everything in public space is generally built on the terms of consumption.
– I would also like an audience that would get a different perspective on the urban space from this show and would notice what kind of position young people are placed in our society. Helsinki’s core center has been built to be really efficient, and its facilities are often inaccessible if you don’t have the money to participate in the tours that are organized there. Many remain outside the doors.
The dark side of Helsinki comes into view
Junkies, a lot of junkies in bad shape and messed up. Retired grannies picking up trash. African men selling drugs. The wonderful smell of hashish. Absent and wandering people in other worlds, staring blankly at nowhere.
_GÄNG_, which takes place around Helsinki’s main train station, also forces us to look at the darker side of Finnish society: even though Helsinki is praised around the world, not everyone is doing well.
– In Helsinki, you never know who you will run into on the street, and the city is full of all kinds of people. Usually people are really nice, but sometimes you can feel unsafe. For example, seeing a public drug deal may cause states of fear. Drug dealing is completely foreign to me, so it can be quite scary, says Anni Happonen.
Kari Huotari, on the other hand, works as substitutes in middle school, and through this he has noticed the spread of the roadman culture, which idealizes a criminal lifestyle, among young people.
– There is more of that in certain environments. It’s about groups that don’t really have a place to hang out. Then all kinds of bad things happen.
Since the _GÄNG_ performance takes place in a public space, surprises cannot be avoided. Every performance also includes a security guard – despite the fact that, on a global scale, Helsinki is still a very safe city and, according to a study conducted before the corona pandemic, the sense of security of the city’s residents improved.
– The big question here is _for whom_ Helsinki is a safe city. In a public space, you cannot control who moves there and for what purpose. I think for practical reasons it is good that there is a person who can focus on making sure that outsiders are not disturbed by us and vice versa, Joel Teixeira Neves reasons.
Thursday’s passage of _GÄNG_ went without any problems, but there may be bumps in the road for many reasons.
– Yes, it always hurts and happens in performances – and especially now, when it’s about something completely different from a traditional theater space. Such factors as people passing by, the weather and even a single member of the audience can affect the whole, sums up Anni Happonen.