WHY DID BENERCI KILL HIMSELF?

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DATE AND VENUE

1-3.06.2002
Aziz Nesin Stage

İSTANBUL STATE THEATRE

  • Written by: Nâzım Hikmet
  • Adapted and directed by: Mehmet Ulusoy

“Why Did Benerci Kill Himself?” is a narrative-poem Nâzım Hikmet wrote in 1932. Based on a story of the united struggle against British imperialism in India, the poem portrays an activist, namely, Benerci, who is finally released from the prison upon a fifteen years’ confinement. He feels he is no longer the vigorous revolutionary that he once used to be. He considers leaving what he calls “the lead of the caravan” and ends up in a decision to commit suicide. Commenting on this particular decision, in the second chapter, the poet says “on no account will this book ever be complete before tackling the conditions as well, under which a revolutionary might deserve the right to kill himself, since the book is all about those who, for tearing down imperialism, do sacrifice the will itself to live.” Mehmet Ulusoy’s astonishing reading of Nâzım Hikmet’s lines.

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