Organised by GalataPerform since 2012, the The New Text Theatre Festival (Yeni Metin Tiyatro Festivali), which aims to discover new playwrights and opens an innovative, original and courageous space in theatre, will take place for the 12th time this year between 24 November – 4 December.
This year, the festival underlines its international structure and creates a space where Turkish writers and directors and artists from abroad meet within the scope of “Theatre Beyond Borders”. With the participation of many playwrights and directors from abroad, the festival opens the door to new discussions and exchanges in the field and connects international theatre scenes through interviews, new plays, performances, workshops and reading theatres.
24 NOVEMBER
CAN I LIVE? / YAŞAYABİLİR MİYİM?
Devised, Written and Performed by: Fehinti Balogun
Director: Daniel Bailey
Co-Director: Simon McBurney
Production: Complicite in association with the Barbican in London, supported by Oxford Playhouse and the Doc Society Climate Story Fund.
Theatre: Théâtre Complicité
Genre: Digital Game Screening & Interview
New Text Theatre Festival 12 will open with the film screening of Can I Live, a play about the climate crisis by the world-renowned theatre Theatre Complicite, of which Simon McBurney is the General Artistic Director. Then there will be a conversation about the film moderated by Ferdi Çetin.
Can I Live? About the film:
Can I Live? is a rap and spoken word performance about the climate crisis through the eyes of a young black British artist and activist.
Inspired by Fehinti Balogun’s experiences of environmental activism, Can I Live? is an uplifting and energetic performance that addresses the lack of representation at the heart of the British climate movement. A rising star of British stage and screen, Fehinti Balogun’s Can I Live? is a vital exploration of where the urgency of the climate crisis and social justice meet. Using rap, spoken word and theatre, the play is a call to action for anyone feeling excluded from activism or wondering how to get involved. In this personal story, Fehinti tells her own journey of climate activism by including members of her family. The Encounter is produced by Théâtre Complicité, one of the world’s most respected theatre companies with works such as A Disappearing Number and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.
Directed by Daniel Bailey, one of the Artistic Directors of Bush Theatre, another world-class theatre in England, together with Simon McBurney, General Artistic Director of Théâtre Complicité, the play aims to awaken feelings of self-return, anger and joy by establishing a dialogue with the audience.
Venue: Postane Galata
Date: Friday 24 November
Screening: 20:30
Conversation: 21:30
Genre: Film Screening & Conversation
Free Event: Application is required for reservation.
25 NOVEMBER
A TURMA/GALATAPERFORM AUTHOR GUEST PROGRAMME
At Vacilando Cafe, the vegan/vegetarian cafe of Galata, which is the meeting point of the festival, there will be a book signing and book launch with the participation of Tiago Correia, the author of the play “Tourism”, which was read as part of the New Text Festival 10 and published by Habitus bookstore, and a conversation with actor and writer Antonio Parra and Tiago Correia, who came as part of the Writer Guest Programme between Porto’s A Turma Theatre and Galata Perform.
Venue: Vacilando Cafe
Date: Saturday 25 November 13:00
Cost: Free, open to all.
Type: Book Signing Event & Interview
*This event is organised with the valuable support of the Portuguese Camões Institute.
26 NOVEMBER
“DEVISED THEATRE” ACTING WORKSHOP WITH AMMAR HAJ AHMAD FROM GOOD CHANCE THEATRE
The workshop, which will be given by Ammar Haj Ahmad, a British actor of Syrian origin and the leading actor of Good Chance Theatre’s “The Jungle”, which has had great success on the stages of London and New York, will be an introduction to the subject of “devised theatre”. Devised theatre – often referred to as collective creation – can be defined as a method in which the play is created based on the collaborative, often improvised work of the theatre team. In addition to being an introduction to this method and practice, the actors selected among the actors participating in the workshop will have the chance to take part in the play reading of “The Jungle”.
Venue: Kadir Has University
Date: 26 November 10.00-19.00
Fee: Free Event. For application yenimetin@galataperform.com
MISSING SCENES
Project Concept: Yeşim Özsoy
Authors: Şirin Gürbüz, Ömer Kaçar, Itır Karabulut, Özge Korkmaz, Ülkü Oktay, Şenay Tanrıvermiş
Project Coordinators: Tolga Kılık, Itır Karabulut
Guiding Player Batur Belirdi
Voiced by Actors: Nükhet Akkaya, Sezgi Deniz, Enginay Gültekin, Vecihi Ofluoğlu, Abdül Süsler
Project Assistants: Gülperi Karademir, Merve Demirel
Studio Recording Mastering: Murat Tunali
Genre: Travel / Audio Game
AN
Written by: Şirin Gürbüz
Voiced by Actor Abdül Süsler
…BUT THIS WINTER WILL MAKE A LOT OF SNOW, AGENCIES SAY
Written by Özge Korkmaz
Voiced by Actress Nükhet Akkaya
MIYAV
Written by Senay Tanrıvermiş
Voiced by Actor: Vecihi Ofluoglu
SUBSTITUTE HAMLET
Written by: Ulku Oktay
Voiced by Actress Sezgi Deniz
VENUS
Written by Ömer Kaçar
Voiced by Actor Enginay Gültekin
NARRATOR
Written by Itır Karabulut
Voiced by Actress Itır Karabulut
Beyoğlu Theatre Heritage remembrance project. A time travel where we will listen to the lost scenes of Beyoğlu…
Those beautiful “Lost Scenes” that hosted many troupes, operas, music, love, love affairs, laughter, lamentations in their time; no trace of which has been left today. The old jewels of Yeditepeli Istanbul. The venues to be visited during this excursion, which the audience will attend on foot with headphones, include Tepebaşı Drama Theatre, Alhamra Theatre, Naum Theatre, Küçük Sahne and Venus Theatre, as well as a few surprise stops.
The audience will start walking in front of GalataPerform’s former home, Galata Kuledibi, accompanied by a guide, and will learn about the venue they will visit through the narrator’s voice; in each venue, they will listen to the voice of a character from the past.
Venue: The tour will start in front of GalataPerform’s old location and continue in Beyoğlu.
Date: 26 November Sunday
Hours: 13:00 & 15:00
DON’T FORGET TO LIKE
Written by Ülkünur Arslan
Directed by Can Sertaç Adalıer
Assistant Director: Özenç Eren Yelçi
Cast: Neslihan Aker, Gülin Bakkaloğlu, Ergün Metin
Genre Play Reading
The play “Don’t Forget to Like”, which is part of the New Text Festival 12 and written by Ülkünur Arslan in the New Text Workshops, progresses in a humorous and witty language within the framework of social media and the search for truth, and in a way that includes screen culture in the content of the play.
“How similar are we to ourselves on social media, and how similar are we to ourselves?
Aslı, who is taking firm steps towards becoming a very famous influencer, is turned upside down by an advertisement offer from a big brand. Don’t forget to share and like.”
Venue: Taksim Ara Stage
LONGEST NIGHT
Written by Dogukan Korkmaz
Directed by Tuba Saglam
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
Doğukan Korkmaz’s play, which was written in the New Text Workshops and included in the festival selection, invites its audience to travel to different realities in an episodic style in a fairytale world.
Efsun is a young woman who has had enough of everything in her life. Every night, after barely falling asleep, she takes her imaginary childhood friend Adero the clown and searches for a happy and peaceful place in her own mind where she can escape from everything. On one of these nights, she gives up waking up and makes up her mind to find the place she is looking for that night, she will not stop even if the sun rises. Efsun is determined, Adero is whining, the night is thinly blending into the day, but one question is gnawing at everyone’s heart: Is there really such a place?
“Nothing is as terrible as uncertainty! You are tossed about in an unknown ocean!
If you stop struggling… Don’t stop struggling, you’ll drown! That’s how you get tired! Nothing is as terrible as uncertainty! No lullaby can drown out the sound of uncertainty!
I swear you’ll toss and turn in your sleep!”
Venue: Tatavla Stage
Date: Monday 27 November
OFF ROAD
Written by: Mehmet Salih Sezgin
Directed by Elif Temuçin
Cast: Firuze Engin, Erkan Uyanıksoy, İbrahim Can Sayan
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
Off Road, written by Mehmet Salih, which was written in the New Text Workshops and included in the festival selection, has a visual and structural style that subtly weaves the feeling and concept of road and journey into the text of the play.
“When a relative has to sign the documents for Marla to leave the clinic, her brother Kazmir arrives. Marla and Kazmir, two brothers, do not know each other. One night, a forest and a journey. The more deer Kazmir shoots, the more antlers he will have. But Marla, Asli, and the first person don’t trust Kazmir, Ferhat, his brother, the second person. How can she trust him? Look, everything’s all mixed up.
The world is full of events.
Missing moments accumulate.
Asli remains.
Is he an abstract painter,
Malevich Kazmir?
Venue: BeReZe
Date: Monday 27 November 18:30
WE ARE ALL WOUNDED WHERE WE ARE SILENT
Written by Deniz Bulut
Directed by Tuğçe Tanış
Cast: Dilek Uluer, Can Yılmaz, Güneş Sayın
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
The play written by Deniz Sevilay Bulut in the New Text Workshops and included in this year’s selection points to the difficulties in revealing sexual identities, secrets and truths.
“How do individuals who cannot live their lives freely due to social pressure reflect the same pressure on each other within the family? A life spent in resentment, resentment, silence. At a dinner party, things that have never been spoken will be discussed. Whatever we have been wounded by silence will be revealed. A mother who never forgets any truth despite the games of her mind, a child who never gives up on the truth of his soul, and a woman in love in the middle of two truths.
Let tonight be our night, Mum! More beautiful than ever, more peaceful than ever. A night where the truth of your mind and the truth of my soul meet. You, me and the woman my soul loves.
My mother… Who hurts me every time she ignores me. The woman who brought me into this world and also the woman who collected suicides for me. No one has hurt me as much as my mother…”
Venue: Asmalı Stage
Date: Monday 27 November 21.00
28 NOVEMBER
FAIRFLY (Gala Screening with Author Participation)
By: Joan Yago & La Calorica
Translator: S. Seniz Coskun Adiguzel
Director: Mark Levitas
Cast: Atakan Akarsu, Begüm Akkaya, Tuğçe Altuğ, Barış Gönenen
Lighting Design: Ayşe Sedef Ayter
Sound and Music Design: Bucan Ekin Simsek
Costume Design: Merve Ertan
Sound Operator Duygu Dikmeer
Technical Coordination: Umut Risvanli
Photo: Volkan Erkan
Genre: Game
Are you ready for the “success” story of four white collars working in the fast-moving consumer goods industry who are about to be unemployed? Fairfly, which brings an ironic perspective to the ruthless competition in today’s business world, startups and entrepreneurship culture, is a black comedy that questions the passion for making a lot of money, obsession with success and neoliberal discourses.
The play “Fairfly”, which has been on stage at GalataPerform since October 2022, will take place at Atlas 1948 Stage with the participation of the playwright Joan Yago as part of the New Text Theatre Festival 12. After the play, Joan Yago will meet with the gala audience to sign her playbook “Fairfly”.
Venue: Atlas 1948 Stage
Date: Tuesday 28 November 20:30
29 NOVEMBER
THE JUNGLE
By: Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson
Translator: Ferdi Cetin
Directed by Ammar Haj Ahmad
Project Consultant: Burak Safa Calis
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
“The Jungle” is a worldwide acclaimed play born from the experiences of Joe and Joe, the founders of the Good Chance Theatre. In addition, the character Amal in the play inspired a cross-border project called “The Walk”, a project developed based on the play of Good Chance Theatre.
The duo, who are the General Artistic Directors of Good Chance, met many people while volunteering in a dome tent for migrants in Calais and held workshops and performances with thousands of people who came and passed through the original Good Chance Dome tent for 7 months. The Jungle, the play they later wrote based on this, broke box office records in the UK and the USA. Since 2017, they have engaged and communicated with over 150,000 audiences on the topic and raised over £220,000 for organisations supporting the possibility of coexistence.
The Jungle Project will start with a workshop on “devised theatre” by Ammar Haj Ahmad at Kadir Has University. More than 20 artists, including students of Kadir Has University Theatre and professional actors of migrant and Turkish origin, will participate in the workshop. The workshop will be accessible and free of charge, with an emphasis on reaching both Turkish and immigrant communities in Istanbul.
In addition to taking part in the New Text Theatre Festival as a reading, the play’s creators are also coming to Istanbul. Both Good Chance and GalataPerform aim to use this opportunity to build bridges between Turkish and migrant communities in Istanbul, on and off stage, as well as between artists and audiences in Turkey and the UK. After the workshop, rehearsals will begin with the actors selected for the play reading and the play reading of “The Jungle” will meet the audience at DasDas Open Stage.
Joe Robertson, one of the writers of “The Jungle” and one of the artistic directors of Good Chance, and Naomi Webb, the executive director of the theatre, will be joined by Ammar Haj Ahmad, the director of the reading and the lead actor of the play, which has had over 500 performances, for an audience interview and Q&A after the play reading. The play reading will also be available to watch digitally.
Venue: Dasdas
Date: 29 November Wednesday 20:00
*The Jungle Project is supported by the British Council’s Creative Collaborations Grant Scheme.
1 DECEMBER
NORDİK FOKUS – WORKSHOPS
Participants: Kristofer Blindheim, Malin Axelsson, Tue Biering, Marie Bjorn
Type Workshop
As part of the festival, we are meeting with international writer and director guests from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Kristofer Blindheim from Norway, Malin Axelsson from Sweden, Tue Biering and Marie Bjorn from Denmark are coming to Turkey.
Tue Biering has directed various plays for 25 years, founded the theatre company Fix + Foxy and made a name for himself by working with “real people” instead of artists and has won many awards. Kristofer Blindheim’s works have been translated into 12 languages and have won many awards, screenwriter Marie Bjorn has been nominated for major awards and playwright Malin Axelsson is Artistic Director of the Riksteatern Youth Theatre.
The writers’ workshops will take place in a platform where they will talk about their own writing practices and their understanding of theatre.
Venue: Hope Alkazar
Date: Friday 1 December
Hours: There will be 4 workshops in total; 11:00 – 11:30 / 12:00 – 13:30 / 14:00 – 15:30 / 16:00 – 17:30
Fee: Free Event.
Application form for registration
IRREVERSIBLE
Written by Sena Işıldar
Director: Saim Güveloğlu
Cast: İlker Sami Kılıç, Tansu Biçer, Tülin Özen
Genre Play Reading
Sena Işıldar, who also took part in the New Text Festival 11 and received the Play of the Year award, deals with the stories of recycling and existence in a dystopian world in her text, which was selected for this year’s festival.
Welcome to the miraculous world of recycling!
This play will tell you the story of the world and its gold while you look up.
This game will tell you what happens to destiny as a result of good and bad decisions and free will.
This play is real but fantastically incredible.
Venue: Bahçe Galata
EVERYTHING’S FINE.
Written by Gülperi Karademir
Directed by Ismail Sagir
Cast: Ceyda Akel, Çağdaş Tekin, Meriç Rakalar, Murat Kapu
Genre Play Reading
Gülperi Karademir’s play, written in the New Text Workshops and included in this year’s festival selection, searches for the truth in the dark waters of a sensitive story of harassment.
“The play refers to the process after the relationship between a man and a young girl. After the incident, the young girl has told what she went through with the statements she gave and the letter she left and withdrew into her shell. What she has lost is no longer present in this place where she does not know “why” and “why” she has come, this absence is replaced by the man’s questions and repetitive “I didn’t do it”.
Perhaps, when it comes to the relationship between an adult and a young girl, we need to go deeper and think deeper rather than simple approaches, rather than simply enlightening the incident as soon as possible and giving the public the image that what is necessary has been done.”
Venue: Kumbaracı50
2 DECEMBER
Text Performances (Girift & Untitled Event)
1. Performance
Type: Performance
Intricate.
In the complexity of life, the linear flow of time creates a fixed reference point in the human body. The body lives in both rhythmic and non-stop cycles of this time. In a disconnected state, where the flow is disrupted, the body continues to function pathologically. This disrupted or non-functioning body is trapped in its own disconnected complex cycle within linear time.
Choreography and Performance: Seçil Demircan
Dramaturgy Melike Saba Akım
Text Ferdi Cetin
Music: Özgür Salıcı, Didem Coşkunseven, Onur Nevşehir
Costume Hamza Zeyrek
Kinetic Sculpture Oğuz Gülen
2. Performance
Untitled Event
Type: Performance
The play, written by Ozan Ömer Akgül for the Balat Monologues Museum festival event and directed by writer and director Ahmet Sami Özbudak, the creator of the Monologues Museum project, is about the story of an artist who is after many problems who closes his workshop to produce a work of art.
Written by Ozan Ömer Akgül
Directed by: Ahmet Sami Özbudak
Actor Baris Gonenen
Venue: BauPera
Date: Saturday 2 December
Time: 14.00 (Girift) 15.00 (Untitled Event)
NORMAL FOCUS – PANEL
Participants: Kristofer Blindheim, Malin Axelsson, Tue Biering, Marie Bjorn
Moderators: Yeşim Özsoy & Ferdi Çetin
Type: Panel
The panel will develop with the authors in the perspective of New Realities and will discuss ecology, politics, post truth and social realities in connection with the plays of the authors from Scandinavian countries.
Venue: Bahçeşehir University Pera – BauPera
Date: Saturday 2 December 16:00
Fee: Free Event. Fill in the application form for registration.
FIRE PLACE (Play of the Year)
Written by: Serkan Nejdet Sadikoglu
Directed by Ayşe Draz
Cast: Adil Ömer Çetindağ, Arda Yeşillikçi, Elif Ongan Tekçe, Sedat Kalkavan
Visual Design: Rıza Efe Reis
Assistant Director Umut Rışvanlı
Genre Play Reading
Since 2012, GalataPerform has been running the New Text Theatre Festival 12, the festival leg of the New Text New Theatre Project, which has been running since 2006 and continues its journey as Turkey’s only theatre festival focusing on playwriting. Every year, a play text written in the New Text Workshops is given the Play of the Year award within the scope of the New Text Theatre Festival 12. This year, the play will be staged at Aksanat with the support of Free Stage and the award presentation will take place after the play reading.
About the Play
A Family in the middle of dystopia…
Ecstatic, unconscious, or perhaps the reality they have been in for a long time has turned them into this state… Are they alive? What is life? How do we know when we are alive? Is living a struggle? Yes and no. Would you struggle in the middle of a dystopia or would you wait? Would you run away? Time? Why do we always think “I wish I had spent more time with him/her” when we lose a loved one? Is it possible to ignore the truth and erase its presence over the years? Why?
Venue: Aksanat Stage
Date: 2 December Saturday 19.00
Free Event
3 DECEMBER
NORDIAN FOCUS / PLAY READINGS
Within the scope of the Nordic Fokus project, the plays of Scandinavian writers coming to Turkey are translated into Turkish and brought together with directors from Turkey. The selected plays of the visiting authors will be paired with each director and the selected actors will read the plays together. After the play readings, interviews will be held with the participation of playwrights and directors.
ROCKY! RETURN OF THE LOSER
By: Tue Biering
Translator: Ferdi Cetin
Directed by Noyan Ayturan
Assistant Director: Emre Dökücü
Cast Bala Atabek
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
About the Game
ROCKY! is the triumphant story of a loser who is tired of being passed over in the queue. Despite all the difficulties, he rises by overcoming his inferiority complex and his past. The play, which deals with the little man’s rise through struggle, his challenge to prejudices and his stance against an unjust system, leads the audience to deep thoughts.
However, ROCKY! is not only limited to this individual struggle but also asks deep questions about the foundations of society and our values. With the increasing number of Rockys on the verge of an anti-systemic revolution, the fears and anxieties of the left wing come to light. This dramatic and gripping play skilfully explores both strong individual characters and social dynamics.
Come and witness the inner struggle of human beings and journey into the depths of social dynamics with ROCKY!
About the Author – Tue Biering
Tue Biering has initiated and directed a wide variety of projects over the last 25 years, including new dramatic works, classics, operas and interactive performances. He has won many awards, most recently the Crown Prince Couple’s Cultural Award. Biering explores our concepts of the world and shows different sides of the stories we think we know that surround us. Under the name of his theatre Fix+Foxy, he transforms classics and pop culture texts into hyper-real performances by staging “real” people instead of artists. In her production of G. David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”, the inhabitants of a small village take the audience on a journey into their own world on the outskirts of Denmark. Biering challenges the audience’s conventional ideas about theatre, provokes them and invites them to interact and take a stand.
About the Director – Noyan Ayturan
After her bachelor’s degree in Physics, she completed her master’s degree in Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy. She studied mime at Theatre de l’Ange Fou – London International School of Corporeal Mime and acting at Studio Players. Istanbul Uni. Dev. Kons. She was among the first graduates of the Pantomime Art Branch and continued to work as a lecturer at the same institution. She worked as a lecturer in the performing arts departments of Istanbul, Haliç, Yeditepe, Yeni Yüzyıl, Beykent and Bilgi universities. She produces content on theatre on the online video platform Hausbühne and continues her doctoral studies at Istanbul University Department of Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy with a thesis on the concept of spectacle in the digital age.
Venue: Dasdas Open Stage
Date: Sunday 3 December
Time: 13:30
Free Event.
*This event is supported by the Embassy of Denmark, Consulate of Denmark, Danish Cultural Institute, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danish Ministry of Culture.
DISTANCE
Written by Kristofer Grønskag
Translator: Ferdi Cetin
Directed by Yelda Baskın
Cast: Bedir Bedir, Defne Şener Günay, Doğuş Can Uzun
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
About the Game
Somewhere in Europe an ice cream lorry is speeding down a shopping street. There are people walking around and the lorry is speeding towards them.
Distance focuses on human lives, existence, relationships and the human search for meaning around a shocking and traumatic event. A couple in a hotel room overlooking the city from above, a woman returning from a party in a taxi, an archaeologist and a scientist meeting at the edge of the world, and a woman sitting alone on a pavement with blood on the back of her sweater waiting for a phone call from her lover…
Three shots are fired and the person in the driver’s seat of the ice-cream lorry starts running.
About the author – Kristofer Grønskag
Born in 1984, Norwegian playwright Kristofer Grønskag’s works have been translated into twelve languages and frequently performed both in Norway and internationally. His work has received various nominations and awards, including winning the prestigious Jugendtheaterpreis Baden-Württemberg, being longlisted for the Deutscher Kindertheaterpreis and Deutscher Jugendtheaterpreis, and being nominated twice for the Ibsen Award. He has worked as a dramaturg, translator and artistic advisor in many theatres. He has also worked as a lecturer at various universities. Her most performed plays include Satellites in the Night-Sky, Counting to Zero, Kinder K, The Beloved and Distance.
About the Director – Yelda Baskın
In 2002, he graduated from Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory, Department of Theatre. In 2011, she completed her master’s degree at Marmara University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Cinema. Between 2001-2004, she acted in the plays titled “Chaos”, “Maids”, “After”, “Abandon” in the Studio Drama Theatre Group. In 2003, she started working as an actress at Bakırköy Municipality Theatre. In the 2010-2011 theatre season, she directed the play “Mareni Hali: Woman”, which emerged during the play writing workshop, which was a first in Bakırköy Municipality Theatres. She was nominated as the director of the year in the 2011 Theatre Theatre Magazine Awards with the play “Medeni Hali Kadın”. In the 2014-2015 theatre season, she was awarded the best actress award by Ekin Yazın Dostları Theatre Awards for her role in the play “Hizmetçiler”. In 2006, she was one of the founders of the theatre collective “Oyun Deposu”. She worked as a writer-performer in Oyun Deposu’s plays “Çirkin İnsan Yavrusu” (2007) and “Aptal, Sıradan ve Suçlu” (2010) and participated in festivals abroad. In addition, the play “Ugly Human Kitten”, in which she was one of the actors and writers, was published in German in the June issue of “Theatreheute 2010”. One of her last plays, the musical play “Fosforlu Cevriye” by Istanbul City Theatres, received many awards at the Afife Theatre Awards.
Venue: Dasdas Open Stage
Date: Sunday 3 December
Time: 16:00
Free Event.
*This event is supported by the Embassy of Norway.
APOCALYPSE
Written by Marie Bjorn
Translator: Ferdi Cetin
Directed by Okan Urun
Cast: Okan Urun, Nergis Öztürk
Genre: Play Reading & Interview
About the Game
Apocalypse is a play about the end of the world. It is told from the future and is written in the form in which it tells the story of spectators who once witnessed a play called Apocalypse.
Apocalypse is a story about the last lovers in the world who desperately want a child, but are forced to flee their homes due to demonstrations, fear and riots.
Apocalypse is written in seven chapters in poetic and rhythmic language. Its form is inspired by apocalyptic religious stories about how the world will end. Thematically it revolves around the fear of loss;
a lover, a friend, a child, our planet or hope as a phenomenon.
About the Author – Marie Bjorn
Marie Bjørn, who is interested in theatre, film and prose writing, graduated as a playwright from the Danish National Faculty of Performing Arts in 2019 and as a screenwriter from the alternative film school Super 16 in Copenhagen in 2022.
With his first play Apocalypse, Bjørn was nominated for the Reumert Playwright of the Year and Special Mention in 2020.
Bjørns’ “Du vil møde en anden” won the Reumert Special Mention of the Year award in 2022.”
About the Director – Okan Urun
Born in Istanbul, Okan Urun lived in Paris for six years, where he completed the undergraduate and graduate programmes of Sorbonne Nouvelle University Theatre Department. In the same period, he graduated from the acting department of the Hector Berlioz Conservatory in Paris. After returning to Turkey, she gave lectures in performing arts departments of different universities.
Since 2006, she has been working with Melis Tezkan as director, writer and actor in video and performance works and many theatre plays with the artist duo “biriken”. The duo takes part in important art institutions and festivals in the USA and Europe with the plays they have staged.
Urun, who also takes part in TV series and film projects in addition to her theatre works, received Sadri Alışık, Ekin Yazın Dostları and Yeni Tiyatro Dergisi awards for her performance in Galata Perform’s İz (2013), and Filiz Kuka’s performance in the film Yüzleşme (2023) received the Golden Boll award.
Venue: Dasdas Open Stage
Date: Sunday 3 December
Time 18:30
Free event.
*This event is supported by the Embassy of Denmark, the Consulate of Denmark, the Danish Cultural Institute, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Ministry of Culture.
MANAGER
Written by Malin Axelsson
Translator: Ali Arda
Directed by Mert Öner
Cast: Şirin Kılavuz Uşun, Aybar Taştekin, Gizem Güçlü, Hazal Uprak, Umur Berk Seven
Genre Play Reading
About the Game
The Manager is an absurd, funny and dark office drama about our deepest desires. A surrealist depiction of contemporary life in the language of management. It’s about bodies and costumes, about dominating and being dominated. And about pornographic mail, lousy powerpoint presentations and staff meetings from hell.
Newly appointed middle manager Jenny longs for something disruptive and wants to realise her lofty visions in the big company. But she is soon drawn into almost incomprehensible power games within the rigid management hierarchy. Like a bloody mafia, executives shuttle between the lunch restaurant and the boardrooms, while emotions, flesh and strife erupt from the dark depths of the company that don’t fit the templates and systems she has to work with. What Jenny, a talented middle manager, doesn’t realise is that she will be the cause of her own downfall, dirty and messy.
About the Author – Malin Axelsson
Playwright, writer and director Malin Axelsson was born in Stockholm in 1975. She graduated from the Swedish University of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre in 2002 and her plays have been translated into German, French, Italian, Romanian and Norwegian. Since 2021, he has been working as Artistic Director at Riksteatern Youth Theatre. He also worked at the Swedish Radio Theatre between 2015-2019.
About the Director – Mert Önder
Born on 20 July 1983 in Istanbul, Mert Öner graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Performing Arts, Department of Acting in 2006. He completed his master’s degree at Bahçeşehir University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Cultural Policy and Art Management in 2012. He has appeared as an actor in many TV series. He continues his theatre career as an actor and director. Some of the theatre plays he has acted in; Pragma, Fight Night, Think Good Things Will Happen, Prudencia Hart and A Strange Bottoming Story. The plays he worked as a director are; The Picture of the Voice, Come to the Exit, Lemon Lemon Lemon Lemon Lemon Lemon Lemon Lemon Lemon, Kul, On the Edge and Here. Today…
Venue: Dasdas Open Stage
Date: Sunday 3 December
Time 20:30
Free Event.
*This event is supported by the Consulate General of Sweden and the Swedish Arts Council.
New Text Theatre Festival 12 Team
Festival Director Yeşim Özsoy
Workshop and Project Director: Ferdi Çetin
Festival Coordinator Simla Güran
International Relations Coordination: Itır Karabulut, Emre Denizoğlu
Production and Coordination Assistant: Furkan Güder
GalataPerform Technical Consultant: Ayşe Sedef Ayter
Content Editor: Ozan Omer Akgul
Festival Technical Coordinator: Umut Rışvanlı
Festival Production and Coordination Assistants: Gülperi Karademir, Asya Kervan, Doğukan Korkmaz
Festival Volunteer Team: Esra Kara, Ümit Deniz, Zuhal Sancak, Ferhan Gülşah Varlıoğlu, Emre Dökücü, İlke Şen, Merve Demirel, Sena Işıldar, Deniz Sevilay Bulut, Safa Merve Sönmez, Buket Atalan, Ülkünur Arslan, Burçin Behram
Festival Poster and Graphic Design: Lokal Agency, Burçak Beşlioğlu and Gözde Özeker Türk
Social Media Visual Design and Communication : LocalMakers
Press Communication: LocalMakers
Website Özlem Çimen
Archive Study Batur Belirdi
Accounting: Taylan Yildirim
