Fifth Issue

The participation of the audience and the influence it exerts on the performance
offers an extremely high degree of emotional satisfaction and identification with the
heroes of the performance, transforming the performance to an interesting approach of
reality, which reflects the development of the theater genre and its differentiation from its
Turkish origin.
Unlike Karagoz, whose plays are based on real events related to the social
structure of the traditional Turkish neighborhood in Constantinople, and serve as scenic
representation of social norms, the Greek Karagiozis plays present a combination of real
events with elements of Greek mythology, ancient History, Christian tradition, creating a
kind of “folk mythology”, which is known to and can be understood by every spectator,
and offer an innovative alternative approach of reality. The stage of Karagiozis represents
a synthesis of elements inextricably related to folk awareness of the world and of specific
historic and social circumstances.
In an extended sense, Karagiozis performance becomes a creation of its audience,
of the people who are active and receptive participants of the process, and whose
interaction with the player is crucial for the result. Thus, the audience represents the
standard of judgement for the improvisational and performative skills of the player, for
his art and his ability to freshen and to enrich the text and the performance with new
dialogues, jokes, movements.
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