Category: Theatre & Dance

HP Reviews
Review: Aylin Bozok delivers a remarkable adaptation of classic Samson and Delilah tale

  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 […]

Theatre & Dance
Arcola to stage Pan Production’s Death and the Maiden / Ölüm ve Kız

  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 […]

HP Reviews
Review: “an outstanding display” by cast of Bliss

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 […]

Culture
Arcola to stage world premiere of Zülfü Livaneli’s hard-hitting musical ‘Mutluluk’ / ‘Bliss’

  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 […]

Theatre & Dance
Manchester’s Turkish theatre group to stage ‘Ah Şu Gençler’ on Sunday

  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 […]

Columnists
Genco and Nâzım in church
 

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 […]

Theatre & Dance
Union Chapel to stage Genco Erkal’s ‘Yaşamaya Dair’, inspired by the works of Nâzım Hikmet

Renowned Turkish actor Genco Erkal shares his love of the works of Turkey’s celebrated poet and playwright Nâzım Hikmet in his production Yaşamaya Dair: Bursa Cezaevi’nden Mektuplar (‘On Living: Letters from Bursa Prison’). Erkal’s two-person show, set to music by Fazıl Say and Zülfü Livaneli, will visit London’s Union Chapel for one night only in January […]

Culture
Despite objections, Greek theatre enjoys second sell-out show at Magusa’s Salamis amphitheatre

For the second year running, a Greek play was staged at the ancient amphitheatre in Salamis, northern Cyprus. A 4,000 capacity audience watched the stunning performance of Antigone on Wednesday 28 Sept. Written by Sophocles around 441BC, this famous Greek tragedy was jointly produced by the National Theatre of Greece, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, […]