DATE AND VENUE
21.11.2017, 20.30
22.11.2017, 20.30
Kenter Theatre
Lasts app. 90’; no intermission.
Turkish with English surtitles.
DOSTLAR TİYATROSU
- Written by: Matei Visniec
- Translated into Turkish by: Zeynep Irgat, Osman Senemoğlu
- Directed by: Genco Erkal
- Stage Design & Costume: Claude Leon
- Dramaturgy: Genco Erkal
- Video & Sound Design: Ümit Kıvanç
- Music: Nâzım Çınar
- Light Design: Hakan Özipek
- Visual Research: Melih Tatlıcan
- Performers (in alphabetical order): Şirvan Akan, Ayşe Lebriz Berkem, Lütfi Can Bulut, Cem Çetin, Genco Erkal, Yiğit Yarar
Refugees’ struggle to survive that takes place right in front of our eyes is brought to stage by Genco Erkal from Matei Visniec’s realist play with sporadically absurd touches. The play will be staged in documentary theatre style, which Genco Erkal frequently tackles as a genre, and will be an immersive experience for the audience with its production, set design and overall statement. Migraaaants takes a picture of the situation as it scrutinizes every aspect of this bleeding wound of the planet and says “Our countries are dying. There’s nothing left to do when a country starts to die”.
DOSTLAR TİYATROSU Dostlar Tiyatrosu was founded in Istanbul, in 1969. The 61 plays it produced within 48 years bear the stamp of a continual research, experiment and creation in the direction of the progressive and social conception of art, which the company has adopted right from the beginning. Dostlar Tiyatosu also acquired the character of a cultural and educational center by means of additional activities such as drama courses, the formation of a chorus and an amateur theatre for workers.
In the 1970’s the company gave special importance to documentary theatre, and performed plays such as Alain Decaux’s The Rosenbergs Must not Die, Enzensberger’s The Hearings of Havana, Peter Weiss’ The Investigation, Orhan Asena’s Hunting in Chile which deals with the Allende period and The Alpagut Affair which tells the story of a rather remarkable coal-mine strike in Turkey. In the meantime Dostlar Tiyatrosu also produced theatrical adaptations from Turkish authors. Among those we may mention Abdülcanbaz inspired by a famous comic-strip, Azizname based on the short stories of Turkey’s great satirist Aziz Nesin, Kerem gibi, Yaşamaya Dair, Sevdalı Bulut adapted from the poems of Nazım Hikmet, and Ağrıdağı Efsanesi (The Legend of Mount Ararat) adapted from the novel by Yaşar Kemal. The group produced on the one hand plays by distinguished European playwrights such as Gorky (The Enemies), Sartre (Nekrassov), Edward Bond (Summer), Gogol (The Diary of a Madman), Vaclav Havel (Largo Desolato), Tankred Dorst (Ich, Feuerbach), and on the other hand many Turkish plays which were the result of close collaboration with authors who were interested in the socio-political events and problem of Turkey.
Dostlar Tiyatrosu which, ever since its foundation had the purpose of creating a theatre of enlightenment, providing a stimulus for criticism and discussion also produced many Brecht plays such as The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Galileo Galilei, Mr. Puntila and his Man Matti, as well as musical shows based on the poems and songs of Brecht.
DIRECTOR Turkish actor and director Genco Erkal studied Psychology at the University of Istanbul. After working for several years in some of Turkey’s distinguished private theatres, he founded in 1969 his own company, the Dostlar Tiyatrosu, of which he is still the artistic director. He has directed the works of Gorky, Ionesco, Brecht, Sartre, Steinbeck, Peter Weiss, Enzensberger, Vaclav Havel, Tankred Dorst as well as many well-known Turkish authors such as Yaşar Kemal, Aziz Nesin and Nazım Hikmet. He has also made adaptations for the stage from novels, stories and poetry. He also wrote a documentary play called Sivas 93. Among his notable stage portrayals are Jaroslav Hasek’s The Good Soldier Schweyk, The Diary of a Madman by Gogol, Brecht’s Galileo, Arturo Ui, Puntila, Azdak in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Socrates in Maxwell Anderson’s Barefoot in Athens, and Jarry’s Ubu-Roi. He has appeared in symphonic concerts narrating Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and Fazil Say’s Nazım. Genco Erkal has also starred in four Turkish films, (among them The Horse, A Season in Hakkâri) which were shown in important international festivals such as Berlin, Cannes and Venice. He also directed and appeared in Haldun Taner’s The Ballad of Ali from Keşan, an epic musical for the Turkish Television. He was awarded many times as “Best Actor of the Year”, twice as “Best Director” and twice as “Best Film Actor”, as well as receiving several “Lifetime Achievement” awards. Since 1993 he has also acted in French, appearing in three different productions in Paris and at the Festival of Avignon: Le Nuage Amoureux by Nazım Hikmet, Ou vas-tu Jérémie? by Philippe Minyana and L’Alchimiste adapted from Paulo Coelho’s celebrated novel.
