DATE AND VENUE

Lasts app. 80’; no intermission.

THERE IS A WOMAN BEHIND THIS!
This theme titled ‘There is a Woman Behind This!’ aims to highlight the plays and discussions produced by women in the İstanbul Theatre Festival programme and to make women's production more visible. All the plays and discussions in this theme are brought to the audience with the theme sponsorship of Odeabank.

MARELİBER

• Written by: Zehra İpşiroğlu
• Directed by: Zehra İpşiroğlu, Deniz Şengenç, Onur Gazdağ
• Dance: Dilara Umay Koyuncu
• Assistant Director: Berfin Kaya
• Artistic Director: Onur Gazdağ
• Video: Deniz Şengenç
• Sound Arrangement: İsmail Hakkı Hafız
• Light Management: Ömer Matei
• Poster Design: Janet Eke
• Assistants: Ece Karacaoğlu, Kerim Can Kara
• Performers: Arzum Gökçe, Başak Vural, Aylin Saraç 

Doctor Mert, who has a respectable standing in society, university student Özlem, feminist activist and faculty member Serra and much-loved nurse Sibel who has a successful career... Through four present-day characters in the play, we will experience a 'confrontation' with the patriarchal mentality that surrounds our lives. At the intersection of three female characters, who originate from a documentary novel based on real-life stories called Haneye Tecavüz written by Zehra İpşiroğlu, lies Doctor Mert who, openly or insidiously, uses the masculine power given to him by society and the system against all the women in his life. Confrontation is the story of three women, Mert’s wife, daughter and co-worker, who become aware of the masculine language surrounding them and being imposed upon their minds and deciding to confront it... Written by Zehra İpşiroğlu, who has also co-directed with Deniz Şengenç and Onur Gazdağ, the play reveals the physical and psychological violence, mobbing and harassment we witness every day, with a narrative directly from the characters themselves. While the social aspect of the issue is represented with a dancer and projected images that accompany the characters, the women’s alienation from each other and what they are experiencing is gradually replaced by acceptance, confrontation and solidarity. The women, who understand who they really are as they share their experiences, will stand up at the end of the road as if they are waking up from a long nightmare…