Jari Juutinen’s international train is travelling in both directions

Jari Juutinen is currently the most in-demand Finnish theatre director and he is also doing the most international tours. This year, performances directed by Juutinen are being shown almost 70 times in total and only five of these are in his home country. In summer 2017, he is heading to the Avignon Festival and Edinburg Fringe.

How have you reached this point, playwright and theatre director Jari Juutinen?

“I just go where the wind takes me,” grins Jari Juutinen. He meets people at performances and these meetings lead to invitations. He met Marja-Leena Junker at the premiere of Minä olen Adolf Eichmann (I am Adolf Eichmann) at the Vanha Juko Theatre in Lahti. At the time, she was managing the Théâtre du Centaure in Luxembourg, and she decided she wanted to direct a French version of the play. The play directed by Junker was also performed at the Avignon OFF Festival and it also went on a small tour of France and Belgium.

There was another significant meeting at the Black and White Theatre Festival in Finland in 2013. This time Juutinen met Avtandil Varsimashvili, director and artistic director of the Liberty Theatre. Through an interpreter Varsimashvili told Juutinen that “the smell of art is emanating from this place and from you.” This is how the two kindred spirits found each other and now Juutinen has directed plays in Georgia twice and the monologue, Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe, directed by Juutinen was performed at the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre. Juutinen will be heading back to Georgia in June and September. He is currently working on Anton Tsehov, which is a souvenir from his travels.

Next up is Avignon and Edinburgh Fringe

The next leg is in July in Avignon, the largest theatre festival in France. The Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe monologue will be performed in French about twenty times on the Les Murmures de Sonia – Crime et châtiment stage of the Théâtre Au Bout Là-bas. Liisa Sofia Pöntinen will play all the roles. The play will be performed at the Maribor theatre festival in Slovenia, at least, in October. It will be performed in Finnish with Slovenian subtitles.

In August, the whole theatre group will perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The actors in I am Faransis W., which is written and directed by Juutinen, are Liisa Sofia Pöntinen, Outi Condit and Aleksi Holkko. Georgian actor Ani Aladashvili will stand in for Outi Condit at ten of the performances in Edinburgh, which proves how good the international relationships are. Aladashvili played Julia in the play Julia! that was directed by Juutinen and performed at the Liberty Theatre. “The train has now started travelling in both directions. This is what I was aiming for,” he smiles.

Jari Juutinen was interviewed by Jukka Hyde Hytti

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I am Faransis W. goes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe