Asukaslehti 2/2022: Kari Kinnari sets her sights on retirement

Next May the actor Kari Kinnari will take the stage of Teatteri Imatra for the last time as a permanent theater actor.

There will be Kinnari's final play, a one-man show, the script of which is still being written at the time of the interview.

The show already has a name: Reittil. The director is a trusted colleague, Antti Laine.

—In the play, we travel from one tick to another. Anything can happen on a check mark, orienteering ties the story together, Kinnari says.

- Speed ​​and dangerous situations are known. At least as much as the body of this age can take, Kinnari laughs.

The pace is improving

Kinnari's acting career will be 40 years next year. He has spent more than 30 of those in Imatra.

- I originally came here for a few years. It dragged on a bit.

What made him stay in the city?

- Jobs, primarily. I came in 1989, Kari Kinnari is headed for retirement, and the recession of the 1990s almost stopped the mobility of actors. There were not many new places available.

Not that the solution seemed bad: Imatra has been a good city to work and live in.

My career has included many successes and interesting roles, says Kinnari. For example, the artists' parties held every five years are memorable. The role of speech therapist Lionel Logue in the play The King's Speech, which will be seen this fall, has also been pleasant.

- It seems that the speed only gets better professionally, the more years are behind. I guess he has learned something, at least to recognize his own abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

More time to plan

So, a great career will come to an end after next spring. Kinnari hasn't planned his life after that - or at least he doesn't say his plans.

- At least I will have more time to plan and think about what to do. Acting will certainly be much less. Maybe I'll become a social media professional or a professional athlete, or I'll write memoirs, Kinnari grins.

There is a life change ahead, but Kinnari does not feel longing.

He thinks that he was able to participate in many things and that he was able to use his talents as versatile as it was possible.

Instead of longing, he says that he is cheering himself towards the last working winter: he used to run one and a half kilometers to work.

- This fall I have thought that next fall I won't run this anymore. Then I run somewhere else.

Residents' magazine