City brought to its senses
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Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 16, 2008 00:00
ISTANBUL - On Wednesday evening, Garajistanbul will host an opening gala before staging ’Histanbul’ until February. Subtitled in English, the play is a multimedia performance that premiered this fall in the Netherlands and exposes the shifting faces of Istanbul.
With seven scenes, seven appetizers and seven songs, Histanbul reflects on the tales that have made it home to many.
Did the woman in the alley represent Istanbul or was she just another shadow passing us by?
The multimedia play "Histanbul" drowns audiences’ senses with its intimate performances, caricature backdrops and interpretative live music.
The project was adapted from the cartoon of the same name by famed caricaturist Kemal Gökhan Gürses. In the play, engineer Ali Bora, who conducts land surveys, searches for "the woman" in the seven hills of the city. After seven appetizers, including the Armenian dish topik and salty fish, are served, the performance features seven songs, seven scenes and seven backdrops. Each scene features caricatures, an art-form that fits well with the Turkish sense of humor.
The play opens with scenes from the chaotic city of Istanbul, said actress Roza Erdem, who is performing alongside Memet Ali Alabora this week. "The play has an edginess unique to this earthquake-prone city, which has been trampled over and again and again to the point of castration."
After premiering in three cities in the Netherlands, Histanbul returns to its own city to confront its own mythology. In the play, the city, named after the seven hills within in, is worshipped in popular songs, basks in the admiration of poems written about it and begins to churn with longing.
Istanbul smiles on a girl whose eyes shone when she smiled in spite of all that was crude around her. Watching love emerge between two young people, the tired heart of the ancient city of Istanbul becomes rejuvenated. The public laugh from time to time, but the true nature of the city’s new inhabitants becomes clear.
The directors of the play are the founders of "Beşinci Sokak Tiyatrosu" (Fifth Avenue Theater), Mustafa and Övül Avkıran. They began Garajistanbul Contemporary Arts Center last year under Taksim's Galatasaray Garage to do what no other space in the city does -- host theater plays, concerts, dance performances, workshops and seminars. The Avkırans played a key role in ushering in Turkey’s contemporary performing arts scene that began developing in the 1990s.
Did the woman in the alley represent Istanbul or was she just another shadow passing us by?
The multimedia play "Histanbul" drowns audiences’ senses with its intimate performances, caricature backdrops and interpretative live music.
The project was adapted from the cartoon of the same name by famed caricaturist Kemal Gökhan Gürses. In the play, engineer Ali Bora, who conducts land surveys, searches for "the woman" in the seven hills of the city. After seven appetizers, including the Armenian dish topik and salty fish, are served, the performance features seven songs, seven scenes and seven backdrops. Each scene features caricatures, an art-form that fits well with the Turkish sense of humor.
The play opens with scenes from the chaotic city of Istanbul, said actress Roza Erdem, who is performing alongside Memet Ali Alabora this week. "The play has an edginess unique to this earthquake-prone city, which has been trampled over and again and again to the point of castration."
After premiering in three cities in the Netherlands, Histanbul returns to its own city to confront its own mythology. In the play, the city, named after the seven hills within in, is worshipped in popular songs, basks in the admiration of poems written about it and begins to churn with longing.
Istanbul smiles on a girl whose eyes shone when she smiled in spite of all that was crude around her. Watching love emerge between two young people, the tired heart of the ancient city of Istanbul becomes rejuvenated. The public laugh from time to time, but the true nature of the city’s new inhabitants becomes clear.
The directors of the play are the founders of "Beşinci Sokak Tiyatrosu" (Fifth Avenue Theater), Mustafa and Övül Avkıran. They began Garajistanbul Contemporary Arts Center last year under Taksim's Galatasaray Garage to do what no other space in the city does -- host theater plays, concerts, dance performances, workshops and seminars. The Avkırans played a key role in ushering in Turkey’s contemporary performing arts scene that began developing in the 1990s.