Puoliaika (Finnish for: half-time) was a once-in-a-lifetime transition ceremony, where an immigrant (spoiler: me) is being transformed to a native Finn, on stage and in front of 250 pairs of (mostly blue) eyes. The Finnish audience was not only a witness for the transformation but also the most essential ingredient of it, accepting the newcomer thus inevitably compromising on their own level of “Finnishness”. By donating a tiny fraction of their national identity to a stranger there are more Finnish people now, but everyone is Finnish to a lesser extend.

Or is it so?

Among other, a priest, a doctor and a deceased president are summoned to the stage to conduct this impossible transformation, working against the count-down clock to make it in time for the right moment. On the evening of the show, the time which I have spent living in Finland (approx. 24 years) offsets with an uncompromising precision the time which I have spent living in my birth country Israel-Palestine. The numbers never lie: I will become mathematically – i.e. statistically – i.e. scientifically and thus undoubtedly – Finnish. But what the hell does it mean?

Half-time is a puppetry show with the puppet being me and the puppetry technique being the national identity. The magic happens by lifting the curtain and revealing the mechanism; the roles that we are all playing in this show called national identity. Do we act so well that we forget who we are? Can at least take an interval and a coffee and see each others without the costumes?

Half-time (Puoliaika) took place on 7th March 2025 in Turku City Theatre.

Concept, script, performing: Ishmael Falke

Dramatrugy: Iiris Syrjä

Light design, scenography: Jarkko Forsman

Sound design: Valtteri Alanen

Doctor, live music: Roosa Halme

Priest: Kai Sadinmaa

Stagehand: Joel Falke

Video, photos and graphic design: Frans Rinne

Production: Grus Grus Theatre