Countdown starts for Istanbul Theater Festival

ISTANBUL

The 20th edition of the Istanbul Theater Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), will take place from May 3 to 28 and offer theatregoers an extensive program, featuring a range of plays, dance shows and performances from Turkey and abroad, as well as parallel events. 

This year the festival presents theater, dance and performance pieces to theatregoers with a total of 32 performances – nine from abroad and 23 from Turkey – in 25 different venues, as well as 18 parallel events. 

The event will see the Turkish premiere of 21 local productions as well as a world premiere of one international production. The Istanbul Theater Festival has been involved as co-producer in nine of the festival’s local projects and four international projects. 

The international productions from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Iran, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland will be featured in the festival, with the event co-producing four of them. 

One these four productions is “The Kindly Ones,” which will be performed in Dutch with Turkish surtitles. 

Co-produced with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, “The Kindly Ones” is based on a book about the extermination of Jewish people during World War II which has caused controversy in France ever since its publication in 2006.

It is told from the point of view of a SS officer Max Aue. The play concentrates on Aue’s stay in three cities which play a key role in the novel: Kyiv, Stalingrad and Berlin. 

“Zululuzu” will be in English, French, and Portuguese with Turkish surtitles. 

Fernando Pessoa, the leading figure of Portuguese literature, lived part of his youth in Durban, South Africa (1896–1905). In the heart of Zululand, he started writing his first poems in English and invented his first literary personae, which would later total more than 70 in his self-searching circus. “Zululuzu” is a “delirious” trip that wishes to speculate about the biography of Pessoa during his South African years. 

Another performance, “Needles and Opium,” is a production with mesmerizing effects, a journey into the night that puts us under a spell and leads us into the light. 

Another international performance, “Secret Face,” is a modern fairy tale on identity. A young photographer and a pretty, mysterious lady wander through different cities, along bell towers, bare trees, night clubs and camera images. “Secret Face” is an evocative adaptation of the surreal film script of Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. 

“Hate Radio,” “The Complete Deaths,” “Ham Havâyi” “Based on a True Story” and “Trois Hommes Vertes” are among the other international productions of the festival. 

Another event will be an exhibition “25 Years of Turkish Theater Magazine Tiyatro” to open at the Nazım Hikmet Culture and Art House.

“The 3rd International Interdisciplinary Theater Meeting,” “Dance Master Class: Olivier Dubois,” “Reading Theater and Panel: The Mask and the Spirit,” “Workshop: Theater Criticism,” “Panel: The World’s Most Spectacular Theater Festival, Avignon” and “Panel: To Create Feminist Framed Stage Performance for Children and Young People” are some of the titles of the events to be held as part of the festival.