First Turkish play on stage at Edinburgh Fringe
ISTANBUL
Turkish theater company Theater Hayal Perdesi is taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which has given opportunities to artists from around the world for 68 years. In the festival, Theater Hayal Perdesi is presenting “The Empire Builders,” an enchanting and dazzling production under Aleksandar Popovski’s inventive direction and Sven Jonke’s innovative set design. Award-winning Macedonian director Popovski takes on Boris Vian’s masterpiece about the noise of humanity ringing out across the world.
The Istanbul-based theater company of artists is dedicated to producing new and original theatrical works. Its first production, “The Empire Builders” was performed at the Istanbul Theatre Festival and the Skopje Festival in 2014, and it is the first theater group performing in Turkish with English surtitles at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The absurdist play by Popovski is designed by Selin İşcan and produced by Hayal Perdesi.
Forced to flee upwards from apartment to apartment, the Dupont family find themselves in ever more constricting circumstances. Constantly on the run, their world is forever narrowing and the Schmurz appears everywhere they go. Continually maltreating these mysterious women, they refuse to even recognize her existence, but Schmurz always awaits them.
The play will be on the stage until Sept. 18. Tickets are available at www.tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/empire-builders.
Performers in the play include some of the most renowned names of the State Theater and the City Theaters including Reha Özcan, Ayşe Lebriz Berkem, Selin İşcan, Selin Tekman, Tuba Karabey and Nihat Alptekin.
Theater Hayal Perdesi has won three awards so far “The Empire Builders.” İşcan won the Best Actress Award at the 2015 Yeni Tiyatro Magazine Labor and Success Awards and Popovski won the Best Director Award at the Afife Awards. The play also received the Best Production Award at the Türkan Kahramankaptan Specials Awards handed out by Beşiktaş Çırağan Lions Club.
