In Finland, Santeri Kinnunen will play Vesa-Matti Loiri — YLE News
In Helsinki, actor Santeri Kinnunen will play Vesa-Matti Loiri in the musical drama Nauravan kulkurin tarina (“The Story of a Laughing Vagabond”). The premiere at the Helsinki City Theatre is scheduled for September 30.
As YLE News reports, Kinnunen had known Loiri since childhood. Loiri was a colleague of his parents, actors Heikki Kinnunen and Rose-Marie Precht. In the early 1970s, they performed together in the play “Seven Brothers” at the Turku City Theatre.
The role of Vesa-Matti Loiri
Kinnunen initially hesitated over whether a play about Loiri should be staged four years after his death. However, after reading the text, he accepted the role, as he considers the production respectful of the artist’s memory.
The musical drama was written by Sami Keski-Vähälä and adapted and directed by Paavo Westerberg. The play tells how Loiri became an artist beloved by the public and draws on his well-known characters, from Uncle Nasse to Uuno Turhapuro.
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The actor noted that he does not seek to literally imitate Loiri or create an outward copy of him. For Kinnunen, the role is unusual: he previously played writer Juhani Aho and painter Tyko Sallinen, but not a person with whom he had personally worked and been friends.
Shared experience
Kinnunen and Loiri appeared together in projects about Uuno Turhapuro. In the summer of 1994, they also worked on the television drama “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” based on a text by William Shakespeare. Loiri played Puck, while Kinnunen played the young aristocrat Demetrius.
Kinnunen called Loiri an extremely productive, versatile and musical actor. According to him, he learned from his older colleague the principle of working at full capacity and never doing anything half-heartedly.
Kinnunen himself has worked as an actor at the Helsinki City Theatre for more than 30 years. He noted that Loiri was a person who could not stay in one place for long, whereas his own theatrical career has been tied to one theatre for decades.
