Jäniksen vuosi

Teatteri Lysti

Theatre Lysti is preparing the play Year of the Rabbit (origin. Jäniksen vuosi), based on Arto Paasilinna's novel and dramatised by Kristian Smeds, for its premiere at the Haihara Art Centre on 28.6.2024. The performance will be directed by Tarja-Liisa Qvintus from Jyväskylä. Actors and other actors include old hands such as Mark Jarvelin as Vatas and Tiia Fyrqvist as Rabbit. There are also many newcomers.

Paasilinna wrote his hilarious work in 1975. In 1977, Risto Jarva made a famous film of the still beloved work. The book The Year of the Rabbit has been translated into more than 30 languages, and the mysterious rabbit is particularly admired by the French. Kristian Smeds's version tells the story of journalist Kaarlo Vatase, bored with his work and life, who has a car accident with a rabbit on his way to work and goes off into the woods after it. Helsinki and its people are left behind, and Vatanen and the rabbit set off on a whirlwind adventure across Finland. Vatanen, with the rabbit as his guide, meets the strangest people and becomes increasingly sure of the direction he wants to go. To nature! It's a good direction and it's one to love, to care for, just as Rabbit and Vatanen care for each other. Tarja-Liisa Qvintus comes from southern Finland and Jyväskylä. She has directed dozens of plays, including The Year of the Rabbit in 2007.

"If you just look around, for example at a bus stop or in a shop, you immediately notice what is happening. Should I move to the forest?" Qvintus says.

The story is a sensitive and important adult fairy tale, but also a warm story of friendship, empowerment and human stories laced with humour.