Shakespeare Magazine 07

Shakespeare Guide: Turkey
Above: Impressively dedicated,
the members of the Arslanköy
Woman Theatre only get to
meet up and rehearse their
plays after spending a full day
Left: We call these devilishly
delicious sweet treats Lokum.
To the rest of the world,
however, they go by another
name – Turkish Delight.
A 2014 Macbeth production
at the Ankara Municipal
Theatre by Professor
Bozkurt Kuruç, an esteemed
name in Turkish theatre.
“Turkish” Shakespeare. According to Halman
it is called Turkish Shakespeare because of
the impact that Shakespeare had on Turkish
culture and thus theatre. He summarizes
this view in his poem called A Halmanic
Paean To The Bard by saying “The Bard is the
playwright for Turks of all ages / In Turkey,
‘all the world’s a stage’ on all stages”.
Feminist Approach
In 1976, famous Turkish filmmaker Metin
Erksan adapted Hamlet into a movie
called The Angel of Vengeance – The Female
Hamlet. With Hamlet as a female character,
Shakespeare’s story is interpreted through the
lens of 1970s Turkey. In 1994, Işıl Kasapoğlu
directed an acclaimed production of The
Merchant of Venice in Trabzon, a rural city in
the North-sea Region. Staged at the Trabzon
State Theatre, this version featured a female
Shylock. In 2009 the Mediterranean city
of Mersin saw Arslanköy Women’s Theatre
Community produce an all-female Hamlet.
Renamed Hamit, it featured traditional
Turkish costumes, with crowns and skulls
made out of cabbages from local farms.
A Street of Shakespeare
An actor named Kamil Rıza Bey who lived
in İstanbul in 1920s was one of the first
actors to play Othello on the Turkish stage.
Legend has it that during the suicide scene
when Othello stabs himself, Kamil Rıza Bey
used to tie an animal’s lungs near his throat
to produce a horrifically realistic spurt of
blood. He was so memorable as Othello that
he was nicknamed Otello Kamil. Today there
is a street named after him in Mecidiyeköy, a
district of İstanbul.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 41