A
young man sends himself a package in the mail. He waits for the arrival of the
post-woman he's admired from a distance, hoping that she’ll free him from
his isolation. He rehearses and rejects the words and moments he's planning
for their first meeting, and plays through all the possible scenarios of his
erotically-shy fiction. Elated, he attempts to draft an original Theory of Beginnings‚
in the short time before the encounter. His desire is to bring his inner world
in contact with the outer world‚ and allow his wishes to become reality.
He uses wit and intelligence to overcome his fear and loneliness.
Finnish is a smart, simple play about the difficulty in verbalizing
what one wants to say in order to truly connect with another human being. The
young man wrestles with the demons of expectation and his inability to coup
with direct communication. Underneath the surface of humor, lies a deep seriousness
in his search for individuality and love. Martin Heckmanns has crafted a captivating
Monodrama filled with joyful contemplation and profound meditation. It can justly
be called Theatervergnügen (Theatre of Pleasure).
Martin
Heckmanns was born on October 19, 1971, in Mönchengladbach. He studied
Comparative Literature, History and Philosophy. He lives in Berlin and is at
present working on commissions for the Lower Saxony Staatstheater in Hanover
and the Dresden Staatsschauspiel. He's published short prose in anthologies
and magazines (Der Alltag, Sheeg, etc.) and became editor of the literary journal
Context. Martin won the Circle Prize for Cultural Promotion in 1998 for Finnish,
and was named best playwright of the season for 2002/2003 by Theater Heute.
Finnish premiered at the Stadttheater Herford in 1999. THALATTA! produced
the American premiere in April 2004 at rogersmitharts in midtown Manhattan.
