The reality behind the sitcom – interview with actor Jarkko Niemi and director Liisa Mustonen
In the comedy Threesome, the audience gets to laugh as the life of the shared apartment spirals into an increasingly wild dead end. But how fun is it to practice? Actor Jarkko Niemi and director Liisa Mustonen tell us how to create a laugh out loud.
The titular group of the comedy Threesome , which will be seen at the Helsinki City Theatre in autumn 2019, consists of actors Elina Hietala, Olli Rahkonen and Jarkko Niemi. HKT is a completely new conquest for Niemi, who has amassed a long CV on TV and the big screen.
“I’ve had a really good feeling about making this piece, but of course I was very nervous at first. It’s the first time I’ve worked in a big theatre house and the first time I’ve played the lead role in a play. For better or worse, theatre is more brutal than camera work when you interact directly with the audience,” Niemi says.
Director Liisa Mustonen praises the spirit of her working group. He mentions that the comedy was treated with the seriousness it deserves during the rehearsal season.
“We had a suitably close atmosphere to work. Even though it’s a situational comedy, we were also able to investigate the real identification points behind the events.”
Realistic avoidance of responsibility
The threesome starts from a familiar situation for many: the relationship has had its time.
“My character Pauli has been living with his partner Sofia for four months and has woken up to the fact that he doesn’t want to be together anymore. However, they don’t want to be a leaver, they want to be left behind,” Niemi clarifies.
Pauli tries to solve his tricky dilemma by inviting his best friend Martin to live in the couple’s shared apartment – because a threesome never works, one of them will surely get bored and leave.
An excuse is needed for the unexpected coexistence, but the men quickly discover that the emergency lie has consequences. Even though living in a shared apartment turns into a series of absurd situations in which even the dead cannot stay in their graves, Mustonen and Niemi say that the humour of the work stems precisely from its recognisability.
“I’ve thought about the theme of the play so much that all the conversations I’ve had lately seem to be drifting in that direction. I think it’s very recognizable how Pauli refuses to take responsibility and avoids conflict,” Niemi ponders.
“Trying to make you laugh at me is rarely funny. Fun is created when the work is given a sense of reality. We humans are pretty messed up on average! When you watch the treatment from the outside in the theatre, it’s fun,” Mustonen continues.
“The most important thing in this role is that you are serious. These characters don’t think they’re funny, but even the strangest situations in the play are completely serious things for them,” Niemi adds.
Laine and Leena
Although the finished performance is meant to make the audience feel comfortable, when rehearsing comedy, there are moments when there is no laughter at all.
“When you go through the play for the first time, but the pieces don’t fall into place yet, the actors are still learning the text and no one can yet remember where to go on stage, the whole team may feel that this is really not fun,” Mustonen describes.
“This time, in the middle of the training season, it felt like we didn’t have any time left and that the whole thing should be further ahead. However, I know from experience that there is no reason to panic, and fortunately the phase did not last long. The feeling that you should be done now should be forgotten, because it always ruins the joy and fun of work.”
To counterbalance the moments of uncertainty, there was a lot of laughter in practice. Niemi gives an example.
“Liisa called me Jarkko Laine at the beginning of the rehearsals. After a couple of days, I decided to correct that my name is Jarkko Niemi.”
“I replied that I guess I know now. I thought Jarkko was joking, because I had always called him Jarkkolai-NEN,” Mustonen laughs.
“Alice wondered if I really thought she was a person who couldn’t remember other people’s names – and she was even more surprised how it had taken me so long to fix it! After that, I started calling her Leena.”
Siiri Liitiä