Continuous Growth, which, together with My Elevator Days, forms the inaugural programme of Anglo/Finnish work being brought to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of theatrical exchange programme From Start to Finnish, has today, been awarded a ‘Fringe First’ by The Scotsman which recognises outstanding new work.
Produced by Ryhmätetatteri (The Groupe Theatre) and written by Esa Leskinen and Sami Keski–Vähälä, Continuous Growth is a timely comedy about work and productivity and forms a loose sequel to their other work, The Overcoat (staged in London for the first time earlier this year). The production follows the amazing and eventful story of Antero Alapylpyrä (played by Scottish actor Billy Mack, awarded The Stage award for Best Actor at the Festival Fringe 2011 for his lead role in The Overcoat) an ordinary family man and standard-issue engineer, who loses his job, starts a business, and manages to mess up the entire global economy in neverbefore-seen ways. With its deft comic touch, the play examines the need of ordinary individuals to find meaning amidst chaos, debt and a runaway global economy.