Road to Konya (Tie Konyaan)

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Road to Konya has started from the walking in the countryside and mountains of Turkey by the Finnish actor Jari Virman. He wandered 670 kilometers from Istanbul to Konya after bumped into a poem of the world-famous Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, mysteriously attracting him. The actor packed his backpack and started wondering toward Rumi's grave. On his way he met Turkey of Erdoğan's time and taped everything he experienced.

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The performance based on this wondering is a personal practice of devotion, a journey of exploration to unknown: it reaches something sacred and presents aloud big questions. As a theatre form it mixes documentary theatre, radio play, traditional theatre and everything between those. 

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Road to Konya is a theatre performance in two parts: The first part is a physical theatre poem utilizing auditive means. In the second part Jari Virman discusses about performance themes with a changing specialist guest.

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The theatrical demo presentation sharing Jari Virman's personal pilgrimage with the Istanbul audience was as the Turkish premiere of the project in Küplüce Mahallesi, Istanbul, Turkey, on May 29th, 2018.

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The Finnish premiere will be in the Finnish National Theatre, on April 26th, 2019. Tickets sold here.