Three New Volumes on Finnish Director Jouko Turkka
Pahansisuinen – Jouko Turkan elämä (Ill Tempered – A Life of Jouko Turkka)
By Kai Häggman (Cover Design: Markko Taina. Photo: Pekka Sakki)
Helsinki: Tammi, 282 pp.
Jouko Turkka – Narri, nero, nöyryyttäjä (Jouko Turkka – Jester, Genius, Humiliator)
By Hannu Harju (Cover Design: Mika Tuominen. Photo: Jouni Ihalainen)
Helsinki: Siltala Publishing, 224 pp.
Ilmiantaja (Informer)
By Tiina Raudaskoski (Cover Design: Emmi Kyytsönen)
Helsinki: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 429 pp.
Reviewed by Outi Lahtinen*
At the height of what can be called the director’s’ era in Finland’s theatre, Jouko Turkka (1942-2016) was perhaps its most powerful and original figure. He belonged to the post-war generation, attended theatre school at the age of 22 and, after graduating, started his career as a managing director in the country’s provincial theatres. He stayed only a year in the first of them, the Seinäjoki City Theatre. His next contract in Joensuu lasted longer and laid the foundation for his fame.
In Joensuu, Turkka made his national breakthrough in two ways. First, he directed productions that drew attention — both positive and negative — not only locally but also from critics in Finland’s two major theatre centres –Helsinki and Tampere (which also happened to be Turkka’s hometown). Second, under his leadership, the theatre wound up badly fragmented with the Board and part of the staff against him while the rest of the staff stood totally with him. In the end, Turkka was fired and from that point on, his reputation for controversy only grew. It grew even during his tenure as head of the national Theatre Academy. That said, the period between Joensuu and the Theatre Academy, was probably his most successful as a director especially at the Kotka and Helsinki City Theatres. Even among people with no interest in theatre, his name became known and everyone seemed to have strong opinions about him — personally, as a pedagogue, and even about his artistic methods and aesthetic style.
Indeed, many students who studied with him at the Academy later reflected on their experiences and his influence on them in autobiographies as well as in a research project focused on his work at the Academy.
Even today – nine years after his death — interest in Jouko Turkka does not seem to be subsiding. No less than three books about him have been published in 2025 alone. Two of them — Kai Häggman’s Pahansisuinen: Jouko Turkan elämä (Jouko Turkka –Ill Tempered), and Hannu Harju’s Jouko Turkka: Narri, nero, nöyryyttäjä (Jester, Genius, Humiliator) — are biographies, with the third, Tiina Raudaskoski’s Ilmiantaja (Informer) an autobiographical novel written by an author who worked as his assistant as a young dramaturgy student in an unhappy production. The novel’s two main characters are the assistant Tiina, whose perceptions, experiences and emotions are at the centre of the story, and Turkka, whose behavior and presence are at the core of Tiina’s observations.
Different Approaches
In spite of his fame and stature, the two biographies are the first to be written about Turkka. Kai Häggman is an historian who has previously written about a range of subjects including family, forestry, Finnish life and, more recently about the Finnish National Theatre. Hannu Harju, in contrast, is a former theatre critic and publisher connected to one of the leading publishing houses in Finland. He previously wrote a biography of the theatre critic Jukka Kajava, an influential figure in the Finnish theatre from the 1960s to his death in 2005.
The different orientations of the authors are clear. Whereas Häggman describes Jouko Turkka most of all as a public figure, Harju looks at him specifically as a theatre professional. Häggman directs a focused spotlight on Turkka while Harju illuminates a larger theatrical scene — the stages where the action takes place. The difference is not only in the description evoked of the main character, but also on others around him and the environment where they are situated.
Häggman’s Jouko Turkka seems almost predetermined to become the scandalous figure he ended up as. The title of the book is taken from a comment made by Turkka’s older brother who says that Jouko was pahansisuinen (ill-tempered) even as a child, a word which in Finnish also suggests having nerve (sisu). Others in the narrative take on various roles as witnesses, antagonists, rivals, admirers, allies, and even victims. Professional and national environments form a recognizable playground as backdrop to Turkka’s story. Even important moments of history are used to create a picture of the era.
In Hannu Harju’s narrative the set-up is very different. He paints a more specific portrait of theatre as a particular cultural field with its own traditions, conventions, institutions and professionals evoking both its national and international dimensions. That means that others who participate in the story have their own specific roles and agency in the many scenes. They also have individual “pasts” and “presents,” phases in their own careers, personal characteristics and experiences. They actually reflect on their contacts with Turkka. The world outside the theatre is scarcely present here, appearing only when it literally imposes itself on the action.
These two different approaches, of course, have their own functions and will, no doubt, find their own audiences. Nevertheless, from the perspective of this theatre scholar, an unavoidable comparison is clear. Though Häggman won the race in getting his book published some two months earlier than Harju, Harju’s book wins on balance and detail. That said, Harju’s book could have used more editing time to eliminate, for example, things like unnecessary repetition.
More specifically, Häggman’s work consists almost totally of previously published materials while Harju’s sources include over 40 interviews. This provides much greater depth and a welcome variety of viewpoints. Häggman pays attention to Turkka’s most well-known productions while Harju considers all of Turkka’s work and analyzes it in terms of the collaborative form theatre is, with a production’s success dependent on everyone involved.
Häggman’s approach to Turkka himself varies widely between admiration and severe judgments. He also seems to be irritated at times by the praise Turkka received from critics, especially from the most influential newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Towards the end of the book, he also wanders somewhat anachronistically making comparisons with younger artists which seem somehow odd and unreasoned. He concludes his biography by suggesting mystifyingly that theatre is an art that cannot be created with good manners referring to Turkka as a kind of burning bush.
Harju, in contrast, keeps tone and attitude much more consistent and much more neutral letting his sources tell the tale. The last section of Harju’s volume is called ‘Decomposition’ and it covers Turkka in the 21st century, the 16 years before his death. He also mentions the dementia which took Turkka deep into his own world during his final years, something that might have shown up in him and his work long before it was diagnosed. In his concluding chapter, Harju offers an overview of Turkka’s career and discusses it in relation to concepts such as genius, expectations (professional as well as popular) and public image. He ends up defining Turkka as being both king and court jester.
Close and Closer
Even though the third book, Tiina Raudaskoski’s Ilmiantaja, belongs to a totally different genre being an autobiographical novel, all three books do interestingly reflect one another in their perspectives on Turkka. Häggman’s description is from the greater distance with the spotlight making the main character stand out so much that any real context fades away. Harju’s viewpoint, in contrast, is more mid-range with both the protagonist and the context observed in detail. In comparison to both, Raudaskoski’s novel is an extreme close-up showing pores, wrinkles and stubble, allowing one to smell breath and sweat, feel blood pumping into and out of the heart.
Ilmiantaja is Raudaskoski’s third novel and her second autobiographical one. Now based in France and out of the Finnish scene, this clearly gives her the freedom to write as she does. Most of the characters, for example, are named only by their theatrical roles which makes the read quite different for someone unfamiliar with the Finnish theatre. But for someone familiar with it, it becomes a roman a clef.
The novel’s atmosphere is electric. The two protagonists – Turkka, who has written the script and is also directing the play, and his Assistant Dramaturg, the student Tiina Raudaskoski — are surrounded by theatre and theatre people. Only occasionally do we leave the theatre. When we do, Tiina effectively brings in her family and turns the focus inward toward her own growth.
The story turns on the production itself which is cancelled just weeks before opening. Turkka at this point is past the peak of his career though he still has both professional and public notoriety. Tiina, for her part, had only been recruited to assist Turkka when Turkka’s son turned out to be unavailable. Tiina finds herself as go-between dealing with Turkka on the one side and the Managing Director of the theatre on the other. Her ultimate loyalty to Turkka is clear and as they work together, the intensity of the relationship grows and the erotic tension increases between them. When Tiina loses her accommodation, he offers her his son’s former room in his own rather ascetic flat.
Nevertheless, Tiina is not Turkka’s subordinate. From the start, she has her own power which she consciously uses both for and against him. She is his collaborator and, especially when rehearsals begin, an ally. Describing her time with Turkka, Raudaskoski reveals his worldview as well as his raw way of expressing things. Neither seems too distant from her own. The overall image of the theatre world is not flattering and the theatre people around them are mostly depicted as insecure and in eternal rivalry. Only a few in this novel are credited for either their skill or their warmth.
Sex, Gender, Misogyny
In the end, Jouko Turkka himself will probably be best-known and remembered for his often harsh physical demands and the focus of much of his work on gender and sexual matters. These were also real issues throughout his career and especially during his time at the Theatre Academy. And Jouko Turkka did cause harm to some of his students and actors in his productions. All three of these valuable books provide diverse and fascinating perspectives on both his work and his alleged misogyny.
Häggman, following the popular scandalous narrative highlights Turkka’s abusive behaviour and problematic representations. He defines Turkka’s portrayal of women as weak despite his own material providing many examples of strong female characters and strong actresses at the centre of his work. Such as, for example, Turkka’s last great success, a play he wrote with his son Juha Turkka which they jointly directed at TTT theatre in Tampere, Rakkaita pettymyksiä rakkaudessa (Cherished Disappointments in Love). The play is the reversal of a favoured theme of Turkka’s, relations between an older man and a younger woman. Here, instead of looking at it as male desire, we find it examining a woman’s desire for a younger man.
Harju, more neutral, provides testimonies both for and against the claims of Turkka’s misogyny and explores the personal experiences of numerous actors who worked with Turkka. Ultimately, Harju makes no attempt at reaching a verdict. He remains neutral.
Tiina Raudaskoski finally is the one who is most explicit allowing her Jouko Turkka to say directly that he, as any civilized man, is at heart a feminist. She even shows Turkka gently nursing her when she has fallen ill with flu. Enough said.
For the record, all three of these volumes only exist at the moment in Finnish. Publishers of the world, take note!
*Outi Lahtinen is a theatre critic as well as a professor at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. Her main interests in theatre research are performance analysis and the theory of performativity. She has written regularly on theatre for newspapers and theatre journals since 1996.
Copyright © 2025 Outi Lahtinen
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, #32, December 2025
e-ISSN: 2409-7411
This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
