Next month, Turkish actor Levent Üzümcü brings his acclaimed one-man show Anlatılan Senin Hikayendir (It’s Your Story Being Told). Written by Cengiz Toraman and adapted by Üzümcü, this contemporary play presents three different stories, starting with Uncle Mehmet from Anatolia. Told with warmth, sincerity and plenty of humour, these everyman tales connect around a common […]
For any new playwright, getting the space and support to put on a professional play is tough. For those from Britain’s black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee (BAMER) communities, it can be harder still. East London’s award-wining Arcola Theatre has a reputation for staging plays from the UK’s diverse communities, including British Turks via its […]
Aylin Bozok’s adaptation of Samson and Delilah takes centre stage at this year’s Grimeborn season at the award-winning Arcola Theatre in East London. Dalston’s Grimeborn Festival is back for its eleventh year, presenting brand new alternative pieces to classical opera and I finally had the chance to visit one of this year’s programmes: a remarkable […]
After debuting at the recent Turkish Theatre Festival, staged at Millfield Theatre, directors Katharina Reinthaller and Barış Celiloğlu bring their adaption of Ariel Dorfman’s award-winning Death and the Maiden / Ölüm ve Kız to the Arcola next Sunday. The powerful play was penned in 1990 in the wake of the brutal Pinochet regime in […]
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rarely out of the news. Beyond the headlines are a host of human stories, people trying to not only survive military occupation, but move beyond it. How do young people caught up in the conflict see the situation? Do they try to resist it? Run away? Give up? What do […]
A new musical stage adaptation of Bliss or Mutluluk, a novel of the same name originally written by the politician, singer and artist Zülfü Livaneli, played at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston, East London last week. A joint production with Istanbul’s experimental theatre Talimhane, this was an outstanding, emotive and powerful performance. This UK run […]
In Lake Van, Eastern Turkey, fifteen-year-old Meryem is accused of shaming her family after being raped by her uncle. Cemal, her cousin, is tasked with Meryem’s “honour” killing. But their journey takes an unexpected turn when they encounter Irfan, a troubled professor in search of a new life… Arcola artistic director Mehmet Ergen directs […]
This weekend, Manchester Turkish British Association’s Turkish Theatre Club presents its debut production, Ah Şu Gençler (Oh Those Young People). Penned by bestselling author Turgut Özakman (Şu Çılgın Türkler) in 1983, this light-hearted play is part comedy, part social commentary. During a single act, the audience is taken down memory lane as young people […]
Cholera Street is set among the wild and lawless slums of old Istanbul. One of its residents Salih, a happy-go-lucky mechanic and the youngest son of a well-loved barber, is about to land himself in lots of trouble when he steps into the shoes of a recently deceased local gangster-cum-community protector. Adapted from Metin Kaçan‘s […]
On a bitterly cold January evening, I walk with trepidation towards a grand, imposing church. Why trepidation? Because I know the temperature inside this magnificent venue is not going to be that different from the outside; I spent many hours trembling inside Union Chapel attending union meetings. The choice of the venue is perhaps anathema […]
