Shadow theater for European children

BURSA - Anatolia News Agency

Serdar Bilgi promotes the Turkish Shadow Theater set in English and French at fairs. AA photo

Serkan Bilgi has created English and French versions of his portable Karagöz-Hacivat set for children, and will make Turkey’s shadow theater tradition available on the European market.

Bilgi, who works as a designer for a humor magazine and as a scriptwriter, created a portable Karagöz-Hacivat stage, so that children could put on plays at home. Because tourists also demonstrated great interest in the set, he has now made English and French versions of the set. He is now in the process of negotiating with retailers to make the set available for sale in Europe.

Bilg said that he first had the idea for the set four years ago while playing with his young nephew. “I saw that children are really interested in it, and decided to create a portable Karagöz-Hacivat set. It has been on the market for four years now and there is a big demand. We sold 20,000 sets last year.”

He said that the set helps Turkish children learn about their own culture, and added, “The set has attracted a lot pf attention from tourists and Turks living abroad, so now I’m making it available in other languages. Just like our TV series, our culture is entering the world market. I wanted to contribute to this.”

 The set includes puppets representing the Hacivat, Karagöz, a Zenne (Lady), and the characters Bebe Ruhi and Çelebi. “A booklet is included that contains five short plays and a description of the features of these characters, as wells as face masks. This tradition goes back at least 600 years in Turkish culture,” Bilgi said.