“Why is the world so f🤬king difficult? Everything is a godd😈n mess, and not just inside my head, no matter what they try to make me believe. 🤯 They want to restrict me, 🚫 control me, keep me in check? I’m supposed to adapt. 🤨 What does that even mean? Is it my problem if I’m too much for you, huh? 🤷 Look in the mirror. 🪞 Don’t you see how broken you are? 💔 You’re the ones who need help, not me.”
Sound artist Annika Fuhrmann and electric guitarist Jukka Kääriäinen present the mini-opera Didi vs The World, which consists of 10 short, dramatic scenes. Didi, a young neurodivergent person perceived as a woman, searches for her place in the world – a world that shuts its ears, suppresses, and confines. Everywhere there are incomprehensible rules and rigid norms that squeeze, force, and restrict. Didi encounters a guitarist, in whose company it feels strangely easy to be. Gradually, the guitarist becomes the center of Didi’s world. For the first time, Didi feels that her life has meaning.
Didi’s story is told through opera, theatre, social media, video and performance art. It is suitable for the hustle and bustle of public spaces as well as the theatre stages. It does not require a concentrated and silent concert culture around itself, but is present where you are, urgently striving to assert its right to exist.
The work is the second part of The Public Life and Death of Afrodite “Didi” Hakkarainen trilogy, composed by Heinz-Juhani Hofmann. The first part of the trilogy, Myself/Myself/Myself (2024), and the part now being performed on Viitasaari have received widespread praise and sparked discussion thanks to their bold, socially sensitive and highly relevant themes. Didi’s story can be followed through the character’s own social media account.
Creative team
Heinz-Juhani Hofmann, composition and libretto
Isa Kortekangas, directing
Karoliina Korhonen, visual design
Eetu Lipponen, videographer
Performers
Annika Fuhrmann, soprano
Jukka Kääriäinen, electric guitar
Programme
Didi vs The World
A work consisting of 10 short, dramatic scenes for female voice and electric guitar
1/10 Anxiety
Didi searches for words for a feeling she can’t name.
2/10 Background story
Didi recalls how she hurt her mother.
3/10 Cowbell
Didi talks about Guitarist’s girlfriend, Cowbell
4/10 Foster care 1
Didi recounts the initial stages of the placement, as well as the reasons that led to her being taken into care.
5/10 Guitarist
Didi feels the heart emoji sent by Guitarist as a sign of something deeper.
6/10 Foster care 2
Didi recalls the time she was in care.
7/10 Didi marked as read
Guitarist doesn’t respond to Didi’s messages. Uncertainty draws Didi into an uncontrollable monologue.
8/10 Aria
Didi performs a song she composed.
9/10 Betrayal and Rage
Didi finds the culprit for the Guitarist’s silence.
10/10 Epilogue
Didi is alone. The days slide by like one another. Thoughts fumble without direction.