Reşat Nuri Güntekin’s famous work on New York stage

NEW YORK - Cihan News Agency

Actress İpek Kadılar and actor Ali Özcan Akın star in ‘The Wren,’ which will be on New York stage next month.

Renowned Turkish novelist Reşat Nuri Güntekin’s famous work “Çalıkuşu” (The Wren) will be performed by the Turkish American Art Society of New York (TAASNY). The work will be staged on March 15 at the Manhattan Park West Hall in Turkish language with English subtitles. 

The play, supported by the Turkish Embassy in New York, Culture and Promotion Office and the Federation of Turkish American Association, will go on a tour in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Boston to meet Turks living in the U.S. after the New York show. 

“The Wren,” adapted to the stage by İpek Kadılar, is directed by TAASNY founding chairman İbrahim Yazıcı. Fifteen actors are acting in the play and the Wren character is played by award winning theater actress Dilek Aba. Another leading character, Kamran, is played by Ali Ozan Akın. 

About a young girl 

“The Wren” is about the destiny of a young Turkish female teacher named Feride. The events in the novel take place in the early twentieth century, in a war-weary Ottoman Empire that is about to collapse. Most of the novel is narrated in the first-person point of view by Feride. In the first section, Feride narrates her childhood and the events that brought her to the alien hotel room which she indicates she is in.

The second and largest section of the book is constituted of Feride’s diary entries. The third section is the only one written from the third person point of view, and recounts the events during Feride’s visit to her family.