- Feuilleton: Theater in Turkey

I.                    General view to The Turkish theater.

II.                  Musicals in Turkey

III.                Today’s Famous Theater Companies

IV.               Architectural view to famous Auditoriums in Turkey

V.                 Interview

I.                    General View to The Turkish Theater

First of all I want to mention a little bit about the Turkish theater history then analyze musicals, famous auditoriums and companies. Despite of Traditional Turkish Theater, Western theater style has not very old history in Turkey so we have to look at the beginning of it then understand today’s theater mentality.

Turkish society met with the west theater with “Reorganization” (1839) in Ottoman Empire. This reform effected the traditional Turkish Theater in a different way, they passed to the in scri ptive period and even the translations and adaptions, Turkish writers began to write their own plays. Also in that period they were effected from the western writers such as Moliere, Sheakespeare, Victor Hugo etc. Ä°brahim Åžinasi’s famous play “Poet’s Wedding” (1860) is accepted as the beginning of the Turkish drama art. Another famous play which has the romantic patriotic metaphor is written by Namık Kemal “Homeland or Silistre” (1873).  Then the society took up seriously western theater model. With process of foundation of the Turkish Repuclic, first Turk-Muslim woman artist Afife Jale took to the stages for a first time at Darülbedayi in 1920.

 (Namık Kemal)      (Afife Jale)

We cannot forget the contributions of Muhsin ErtuÄŸrul to the Modern Turkish Theater, with his encourage Ankara Government School of Arts’ students were constitute their own stage in 1941 and in 1949 government theaters were officially founded. Especially in 1960, there can be easily seen that the amount of private theaters were increased and some of them are still working today such as Ankara Art Theater (Rutkay Aziz), Kent Players (Yıldız-MüÅŸfik Kenter), Dormen Theater (Haldun Dormen) and Dostlar Theater ( Genco Erkal). But in 1970’s, there were lots of political arguments and the subject of the plays were changed, companies prefer to play politic documentary, plays with music and epic musicals such as “KeÅŸanlı Ali Destanı” which is presented by Gulriz Sururi- Engin Cezzar Theater in 1964.   With the 80 coup d’etat lots of playwriter of company cannot put on a play because of the sensorship and some private theaters were closed because of their political views. After 80’s, Turkey’s atmosphere also effected theater and art and caused to stagnation. In that period the number of the audiences were  increased, we can see a lot of comedy and cabarets like DevekuÅŸu Kabare, Nejat Uygur Theater, Gazanfer Özcan-Gönül Ülkü Theather etc. Some theater reviewers thought that these companies were not contribute to the Turkish theater, they just full their stages and make comedies not create a new movement or idea. However, society likes their plays and they were stil watching from televisions, DVDs, etc.

 We can also talk about the new playwriters who are very attractive aafter 80’s and nowadays such as Tuncer CücenoÄŸlu, Murathan Mungan, Ülkü Ayvaz ve Mehmet Baydur.

(Ankara Art Theater- Play: Benim Meskenim Dağlardır)

To sum up, with rise and falls Turkish Theater still working active and present very successful plays. Also audiences are become more and more interested in theater, but with the invention of the television, society wants to see famous faces on the stage and this issue is create an advantage for private companies. Next week, I am going to talk about famous and successful theater companies, their history, plays, actors and actresses.

Serra ATAMAN