Big Questions and Being Human – Interview with Director Johanna Freundlich
“Great text, great characters, wonderful contradictions,” director Johanna Freundlich thought after reading Lucy Kirkwood’s Children for the first time. The play struck a chord immediately.
Freundlich considers the first reading experience important, because then you are in the same position as the audience. “The text was captivating and managed to surprise me. I wouldn’t have guessed what would happen next,” Freundlich says.
Children tells the story of a retired nuclear engineer couple, Hazel and Robin. After a major accident, the couple has moved from their own house to a small seaside cottage, where their childhood friend and colleague Rose unexpectedly arrives for a visit.
At first, they exchange news and discuss where life has taken them over the past decades. Soon, old tensions begin to smoulder under the surface. The question arises as to what Rose really wants from the meeting.
“The ingenious thing about the text is that for a long time people think that it is one kind of thing. Here, the level of the relationship and the broader issue are nicely interwoven,” Freundlich says.
Big questions and being human
Even though the characters are of retirement age, the play is not about aging, but about life in general. According to Freundlich, Kirkwood, who was born in 1983, treats the characters from the inside with great understanding and heart.
“It’s special and great in this world, where it’s easy to look at a person through their age number. I would like to see more sense of community across age limits,” Freundlich says.
Perhaps this kind of community would make people think about the consequences of their own choices and actions from a broader time perspective. The title of the play, Children , refers to the question of what each generation leaves behind.
Understandably, everyone hopes for a safe life, but when does security-seeking mean burying one’s head in the sand and not daring to live? What is the relationship between safety and the meaningfulness of life?
All the characters have experienced bumps and been subjected to many kinds of spins. Different experiences, ways of thinking and attitudes cause clashes. Therefore, the name Children can also be thought of as related to the childlike and feisty behaviour of the characters.
“They don’t tear each other to death, but they don’t get away with it easily. The stories are short, they contain irony, verbiage and jokes.”
Children is an intelligent, expansive and universal play that contains big questions but an easily approachable human being. “If there is a weighty issue without a hint of humour, I may at least get exhausted as a viewer right away,” Freundlich says.
Banal reality deeper
Freundlich directed his first play in the ninth grade, encouraged by his native language teacher. Later, Freundlich has been amused by the fact that the themes of the play were so similar to those of his current directing.
Freundlich likes big stories. They show things that you can’t see with the naked eye without looking closely. According to Freundlich, theatre has the ability to structure a chaotic world and drill deeper than we can reach in our banal reality.
“Theatre makes the world more understandable, bearable and beautiful. Although it doesn’t have to be lovely and pretty, but it can be brutal.”
Starting a new production is always just as exciting, no matter how many kilometres you have travelled. You can never predict what the chemistry of doing will be like.
“It’s wonderful to see what kind of whirlpools the tango of three works with. In such an intimate group, I don’t want to lock in too much in advance.”
However, the background work must be done carefully so that when the rehearsals begin, you get to know the world of the play properly. Freundlich has a habit of thoroughly mumbling the world of the play and reading newspaper articles related to the themes. In children, for example, she has studied the different ways in which people spend their retirement days and what kind of choices they can make in retirement.
There must be a lot of material, as well as meetings with designers. You need to know in advance what outcome and atmosphere you want to aim for. How to get there will only become clear in training.
“You have to go towards something that feels right and start growing it. A bit like fruit ripens on a tree, at some point there comes a moment when you know that you areready.“
Text: Ida Henritius