Screenwriter Heikki Vihinen: “The text would be nothing without the actors.”
In recent years, restaurant and food culture have taken on farcical features in the media.
This observation served as the initial impetus for the comedy Le Coq – The Battle for the Restaurant, which is the fifth joint play by Heikki Vihinen and Timo Kahilainen . The duo has worked together for more than thirty years, and the writing process has become smooth over the years.
“Making a play starts with brainstorming: thinking about what interests you and what would whip you into a good writing process. Once the subject has been found, we create the characters who are adventurous in the play and then the play itself,” Vihinen says.
The groundwork is about bouncing ideas, for example, preliminary thinking about the characters and the plot. Vihinen and Kahilainen both do that on their own, but the actual play is created together. Writing is done three to four times a week, in sessions lasting about four hours.
It may take up to one and a half years to complete the work from an idea to a finished play. Vihinen and Kahilainen sent the script for Le Coq to the Helsinki City Theatre to read a year ago. Before that, they had been working on the play for six months.
At the heart of the comedy, laughing at humanity
Le coq – the battle for a restaurant plays with cultural stereotypes and passions. However, Vihinen says that during the writing process, they do not think about what kind of stereotypes the play creates or reinforces. The point is not to offend anyone, but to laugh at human brutality and the fact that there are many of us on many trains.
“I strongly believe that an artist should not let pre-censorship limit them. If you do something that is colored by bad taste, you get it back by the fact that the audience doesn’t like it,” Vihinen explains.
So what does it take to write a comedy?
“At least being able to laugh at an event, a phenomenon and, above all, at yourself,” Vihinen thinks and continues:
“Another fascinating thing about writing a Finnish new drama is that you don’t know if you’re going to make anyone laugh or if they’re going to buy our stuff. We are not looking for individual laughs, but for people, situations and how people act in situations to be funny.”
The miracle of theatre is realised through the actor
Every writing process includes difficult moments and dead ends. Vihinen says that there is always a stop at some point, when you feel like you can’t move forward. Even though faith in the entire play momentarily falters, you have to persistently move on and stop to think about what has been done wrong.
Often, the most pleasant part of writing is the moment when the play is finished. It feels best when your own text moves from paper to stage.
“At the heart of theatre are the actors who sacrifice their own time and professionalism and raise the text to the power of ten. That’s when you start to feel like the text is well written.”
In addition to writing the screenplay, Vihinen has directed Le Coq. During the rehearsal phase of the play, the original script has largely been adhered to, with the exception of a slight stylization. Some sentences have been changed to be more fluent or more suitable for situations.
Le Coq – Battle for the Restaurant is Vihinen and Kahilainen’s first visit to the Helsinki City Theatre.
“It’s great that Finnish theatre is hosting premieres. If the theatre’s repertoire does not include domestic plays, then something is wrong. However, the new texts reflect this time and society.”