Theater is not a one-season show; it is a lifetime journey. The 2025 season was full of powerful texts, stage designs and impressive acting. However, there were some plays that were not only watched but also engraved in our minds and hearts. Here are 5 plays that must be watched before the season ends, overflowing with emotion and thought from the stage…
1. Sevgi Soysal: Yaşatak Insisting
BGST – Boğaziçi Performing Arts Group
“Some lives become books. Some books become stages. Sevgi Soysal, on the other hand, lived, wrote and resisted.”
This play tells not only the life story of a writer, but also the struggle to exist in the dark and complicated political atmosphere of a period. The story begins on the morning in London when Sevgi Soysal, who did not compromise on her pen even during the years she fought cancer, turned 40. But what is told on stage is not just a morning. This morning includes the March 12 coup, prison, being a woman, love and writing.
The production, which bears the signature of BGST, offers a high artistic discipline in terms of both literary and staging. The multi-layered structure seen in the text of the play makes the audience experience a journey of memory. Duygu Dalyanoğlu’s pen and Aysel Yıldırım’s direction invite the audience not only to witness, but also to question and feel.
️ 2024 Direklerarası Awards – Tableau Play
️ 2024 Üstün Akmen Awards – Ekip Play
Upcoming Screenings:
May 25 – Alan Kadıköy
2. Afife
Zorlu PSM & Afife Theater
“The price of being the first Muslim female actor to appear on stage was not paid with applause alone. If Afife was not on stage, she was not there.”
Afife Jale’s life is like a scream in the memory of Turkish theater. Afife is a figure who can stand tall despite the stage ban, oppression and identity struggle for the sake of her love of theater. This play is not only her biographical narrative; it is a story of resistance that has become a stage.
In the production, which comes to life with Demet Evgar’s extraordinary performance, the audience wanders around the backstage of a multicultural theater company in the occupied city of Istanbul at that time. The play becomes the voice not only of Afife but also of women, art and individual freedom.
The staging, choreography and costumes, fed by songs with music by Tuluğ Tırpan and lyrics by Sezen Aksu and Ilgın Kopuz, offer a complete audio-visual feast. Directed by Serdar Biliş, it turns into a production that will leave a mark in contemporary theater.
Screenings:
May 25-26 – Zorlu PSM Turkcell Stage
️Editor’s Choice: If you could watch only one play this season, it would be right to choose this play.
3. Mercaniye Çok Yaşa
Theater Dream
“Can dreams sprout while a ship decays?”
This masterful text by Ahmet Sami Özbudak holds a mirror to the present day with a historical allegory. The scene is shaped around the warship “Mercaniye”, which has been left to rot in the Golden Horn for twenty years. Captain Asaf and his crew want to put the ship back to sea. However, the collapse of an empire, rumors of war, economic crisis and social depression stand in the way of this dream.
The humorous language of the play gives a breath of fresh air to the gloomy atmosphere of the period. The production, directed by Emrah Eren, transforms a historical comedy into a political satire adorned with satire for the audience.
The presence of strong actors such as Erdem Akakçe, Sevil Akı, Bülent Çolak increases the dynamism on stage. Barış Dinçel’s sets are quite successful in creating a surreal atmosphere.
️2025 Savaş Dinçel Awards – Playwright & Director of the Year
Screenings:
May 18 – Trump Cultural Center | May 23 – Çorlu | May 26 – Kadıköy Education Stage
4. A Terennüm
Orchestra Theater
“Memory whispers its deepest stories in silence.”
“A Terennüm”, brought to the stage with Firuze Engin’s poetic text and Gülhan Kadim’s meticulous direction, deals with a woman’s final farewell to her grandfather as a journey through memories. The play, which takes place in the Çamlıca district of Istanbul and is framed by curfews in two different time periods, takes the audience to both individual and collective memory.
İpek Türktan’s performance is simply mesmerizing. In the play, not only the characters but also time itself comes onto the stage. Grandfather, grandmother, grandchild; all come together in the same hall, in different years, with the same memories.
️ 2023 TEB – Director of the Year
️ 2024 Direklerarası – Actress
The play continues to be shown on different stages in Istanbul.
5. 9/8 Apocalypse
Mek’an Sahne
“If there is an apocalypse, even a darbuka can catch its rhythm.”
An Istanbul hit by the climate crisis… Migrations, drought, diseases… And in the middle of all this, a man who tells stories every night with his darbuka: Diyar. This impressive one-man performance is structured as both a dystopia and a folklore narrative.
Oğulcan Arman Uslu’s presence on stage keeps the audience on their toes. Şâmil Yılmaz’s pen transforms today’s disasters into the myths of the future. Sezen Keser’s direction turns the stage into a storyteller’s tent.
The rhythm, light and atmosphere of the play remind the audience that there are stories to be told, not just about the apocalypse, but even within it.
It continues to be shown on various stages in Istanbul and Anatolia.
