I SWIM AGAINST THE STREAM WITH MY WORDS, TO REMEMBER

Original name: Ouroboros

Characters: 1 female or 1 male

Available in Kurdish, Turkish English and German

World premiere: 12 March 2020, theaterimballsaal, Bonn

Production: fringe ensemble and Şermola Performans

Director&Performance: Frank Heuel

Details coming soon...

Original name: Kêm Semah

Characters: 1 female

Available in Kurdish, Turkish, English and German

World premiere: 25 January 2020, Kulturbunker, Cologne

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin

Performance: Hicran Demir

Details coming soon...

Original name: 8

Characters: 1 or 2 males

Available in Turkish and German

World premiere: 5 July 2019, Urania Theatre Cologne

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin

Performance: Tuğsal Moğul

Performed in Urania Theatre Cologne,

Theater Nacht Cologne 2019 Kulturbunker Cologne

Details coming soon...

Original name: Erdkêşî

Characters: 1 female, 1 male 

Available in Kurdish, French, Turkish and German

A text based on true stories which zeros in on the tragic massacres suffered by Yezidi Kurds and the dilemmas experienced by Kurds living in the diaspora.

Ferhad, a fugitive from the war who lives in Sinjar, crosses paths in Istanbul with Şerin, a woman based in Germany who is travelling back to her roots. The moment they meet, time stops; their hearts beat faster. But neither gives up on their journey. In each case, this journey is an existential struggle. Şerin sets off for Diyarbakır and Ferhad, with the help of smugglers, for Germany. The only way they can communicate is by phone. Neither puts their phone down for a moment on their travels. The further apart they are physically, the closer they become. They agree to meet up in Bonn. But Ferhad loses his phone in Italy.

Will Ferhad make it to Bonn? Will Şerin and Ferhad find each other? Will their burgeoning romance come to anything?

A potential love story dogged by war, flight, alienation, otherization, fascism and preconceptions.

World premiere: 24 May 2018, theaterimballsaal, Bonn

Production: fringe ensemble and Şermola Performans

Director: Frank Heuel

Original language: Kurdish

Kurdish-Turkish translation: Mirza Metin 

Turkish-German translation: Hicran Demir, David Fischer, Frank Heuel, Aytuğ Erdil and Dilan Akter 

With the financial support of the City of Bonn, Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations.

Performed in Theater im Ballsaal Bonn

Orangerie Theater Cologne

TAK Theater Berlin

Original name: Rawestgeharaf/Aradurak

Characters: 3 males 

The play is trilingual.

Available in Kurdish, Turkish and German.

Published by Theater Der Zeit in German (2017)

Hay, Kam and Dav speak different languages and have no other language in common. All three are anxious to leave the country in the face of an approaching storm. They meet by chance at a deserted bus stop. As they struggle to understand one another, a message drops onto the bus stop from above. Only one person can read the message, which says: ‘Attention! The bus will arrive at the Stopover in 10 minutes. There is room on the bus for one passenger only.’

World premiere: 17 February 2017, Kumbaracı50, Istanbul 

Germany premiere: 24 May 2018, theaterimballsaal Bonn

Production: Şermola Performans and fringe ensemble

Director: Frank Heuel

Actor: David Fischer, Sermet Yeşil/İlker Abay, Mirza Metin

Decor and Costume Designer: Annika Ley, Bilge Kutlu

Reji Assistant: Ceyda Gönen

Project Assistant: Hazni Demir

Original language: Kurdish and Turkish

Translation into Turkish: Mirza Metin

Translation into Kurdish: Alan Ciwan

Turkish-German translation: Sabine Adatepe

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Goethe Institute Istanbul

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Awards: 17th Direklerarası Audience Awards, Special Jury Prize, 2017 Istanbul

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With the financial support of the Arts Foundation, NRW Kunststiftung and Goethe Institut Istanbul. 

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WELT/BÜHNE Plattform für internationale Dramatik - Residenz Theater Münich 

Reading performance - Directed by Franziska Angerer

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Performed in 

Performing Arts Festival Berlin 

Urbang Festival Cologne

16th Sevgi Gonul Theatre Festival Istanbul

Theatre Discounter Berlin

Orangerie Theatre Cologne

Theater im Ballsaal Bonn

Kumbaraci50 Istanbul

Emek Theatre Istanbul

FFT Düsseldorf

Theater Pumpen Haus Münster

Original name: Serencama Qijikan

Characters: 3 females, 7 males.

Available in Kurdish and Turkish.

During a long out-of-town tour, the Crow Theatre Company come to realize that the villages, towns and cities they pass through are gradually emptying. But they keep going, determined to find audiences. After some time, they arrive at the Red City, only to find that the city has been swept through by tanks. The only signs of life in the city are an elderly storyteller called Kal and the three spirits, Mar, Wan and Zen, who knit a variety of socks for the Crows to wear on their heads. By this point, the Crows can neither keep going, nor turn back. They are caught between going, staying, reaching audiences and giving up. Rehearsals continue on the one hand, while on the other they are subjected to the various pranks played on them by the spirits. The play shades into a govend dance danced within a poignant tale. Both tale and govend have the effect of a restorative tonic.

World premiere: 18 May 2016, Istanbul Theatre Festival, Moda Sahnesi

Production: Şermola Performans

Directors: Mirza Metin and Berfin Zenderlioğlu

Original language: Kurdish 

Turkish translation: Mirza Metin

Turkish-Kurdish translation of Turkish citations and Turkish scenes: Alan Ciwan

Awards: 18th Direklerarası Audience Awards, Best Original Theatre Music: Arjen Brûk, Koray Tarhan and Vulkan Alp

Performed in International Theater Festival Istanbul, 

Moda Theatre Istanbul, 

Kadir Has University Theatre Istanbul

Original name: Bu Tablo Bazı Anlamlara Gelebilir

Characters: 2 females, 7 males

Available in Turkish.

A nod to ‘Waiting for Godot’…

MAR: There’s nowhere to stay.

WAN: Nowhere to go either.

MAR: In that case, let’s die.

WAN: How about we get wet in the rain first? 

A city bulldozed by tanks...

Ravaged, bullet-ridden buildings, towers, city walls, castles, statues, books, people...

Mar and Wan are two street vendors who believe they have been assigned to watch and report on the city. One sells citrus juicers, the other lottery tickets. Both think their one proviso for leaving the city is to sell their remaining stock.

Original name: Goristana Hespan 

Characters: 3 males

Available in Kurdish and Turkish.

Lıku and Şevgur are two good childhood friends who grew up in nearby villages. A long-running problem has led to tension between the two villages, as a result of which they haven’t seen the other since they were kids. This will be their first encounter in years.

When he comes to, Lıku finds himself blindfolded and hanging upside down by the legs. Before long, a man arrives. Şevgur. And he proceeds to torture Lıku, demanding repeatedly to know the whereabouts of a map. The voice is familiar to Lıku. Just as the guy hanging by his legs is familiar to Şevgur. 

Şevgur is armed by the state against the organization and Lıku a shepherd-cum-paramilitary who works for the organization.

A confrontational drama built around the themes of childhood, friendship, honour, identity, money, the state and betrayal.

Kurdish-Turkish translation: Mirza Metin

Original name: Aç Köpekler

Characters: 1 male

Available in Turkish and English.

Beşir and Beşir are twins orphaned as children. As early teenagers, they escape from the east of Turkey to Istanbul. After a time, they go their separate ways. For almost 30 years the brothers don’t see each other, until one day Beşer turns up at Beşir’s place with a stolen safe. Beşir has made a living for himself as an innocuous curtain maker, a curtain maker with a writer’s soul. Beşer, on the other hand, is a professional fraudster who has lost touch with his true identity. Memories and longings swirl as an anger-filled confrontation flares up between them. Beşir questions who they are and where they belong, while Beşer rejects his past altogether and dreams only of getting rich.

This play is the agony of being unable to give birth to yourself,

the indifference that comes of having lost from the outset.

It is a pinch of salt in the soup of languagelessness.

It is the complex story of two orphan dogs, identical but different,

Lost in the streets of the city of non-belonging

And still waiting to begin life.

World premiere: 9 February 2015, Kumbaracı50, Istanbul

Production: Kumbaracı50

Director: Cem Uslu

Turkish-English translation: Lucy Wood

Awards: Selection of the Eurodram (European network for drama in translation) Turkish Language Committee, 2016

Performed in Kumbaraci50 Istanbul, 

PEN World Voices International Playwright Festival, New York, 2017 (Reading performance in English and discussion, Directed by Dan Safer), 

Nilufer Theatre Festival Bursa/Turkey, 

Theater an der Ruhr Disburg, 

Theater Dortmund Studio

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD_BU_4t8xU

Original name: Gor

Characters: 1 female, 4 males

Available in Kurdish.

Published by Avesta in Kurdish (2018)

Published in Kurdish from Avesta Publications in 2018 (Turkey)

The story of souls trapped in the grave until their bodies decompose. In the event, all they can do is wait and talk about their past lives. Perhaps some of them have crossed paths in the past. Who knows?

Interweaving mythology and true stories, the text is reinforced with references to the holy scriptures.  

World premiere: 7 October 2013, Altfest, Şermola Performans, Istanbul

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin

Awards: 14th Direklerarası Audience Awards,

Special Jury Prize for Best Original New Play

Performed in AltFest Istanbul, 

Şermola Performans Istanbul, 

Batman Theatre Festival Batman

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UotrHj2OZFk

Original name: Gezerken

Characters: 4 females or males

Available in Turkish.

The text of ‘A Walk in Gezi Park’ was co-written in two days by Cem Uslu, Özen Yula, Yiğit Sertdemir and Mirza Metin, all playwrights from Turkey, during the Gezi Park protests. The writers each wrote a monologue based on their observations during the uprising. The texts were then performed with four actors in parks during the Gezi events and for some time afterwards.

In ‘Coincidence or Otherwise’, Cem Uslu recounts events through the eyes of a 32-year-old white-collar worker who, until now, has never taken part in a demonstration before and only been to Gezi Park a few times. The part was played by Serkan Altıntaş.

Özen Yula’s piece, ‘Filling the Gap’, connects past and present in bringing to Gezi Park a man who witnessed the 1 May 1977 Taksim Square massacre. Reha Özcan, and latterly Erdem Akakçe performed the role.

‘TOMA’s Appeal to the Nation’, written by Yiğit Sertdemir, describes the Gezi

experience from the point of view of a TOMA (riot control vehicle). The part was played initially by Şebnem Sönmez and later by Sevinç Erbulak.

In the final piece, ‘The Paper Collector’s Dog, Kitmir’, Mirza Metin takes up a dog’s version of events. Sermet Yeşil performed the role.

World premiere: 8 June 2013, Gezi Park, Istanbul

Awards: 14th Direklerarası Audience Awards, Peace Prize

Performed in the Gezi Park and many other parks in Istanbul

Original name: Disko 5 No’lu

Characters: 1 male

Available in Kurdish, Turkish and English.

Published by Avesta in Kurdish (2018)

Published in Kurdish from Avesta Publications in 2018 (Turkey)

A piece on the brutality of Diyarbakır’s No 5 prison...

A story of barbarity... 

The play is a fictional text based on memoirs, research, documentary work and interviews about the barbarity rife in Diyarbakır’s No 5 Prison in the wake of the 1980 military coup.

Disco (an acronym of the Turkish for ‘disciplinary cell’) is essentially a military torture chamber in Turkey. And Diyarbakır’s No 5 Prison the venue where the experiment is trialled.

A spider, a fly, a mouse, a dog, a prison guard and an inmate begin to speak in a single body. They describe a level of barbarous cruelty that challenges the boundaries of comprehension and the imagination.

‘Disco Number 5’ enjoyed some 250 performances, as well as taking part in numerous festivals both nationally and internationally. The play also toured major cities around Turkey and Europe.

World premiere: 24 November 2011, TAKSAV 16th International Ankara Theatre Festival, Ankara Sanat Theatre

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Berfin Zenderlioğlu

Awards: 

2011 - NTVmsnbc TV, One of the Best Five Plays of 2011 

2012 - TiyatroTiyatro (theatre magazine) Awards, Best Actor of the Year

2012 - 12th Direklerarası Audience Awards, Best Solo Production

2012 - Hürriyet Newspaper Awards, One of the Best 10 Acting Performances of 2012

2012 - Tiyatronline.com Photo Awards, Best Stage Photo of the Year

Nominations:

2012 - TiyatroTiyatro (theatre magazine) Awards, Best Production of 2012

2012 - TiyatroTiyatro (theatre magazine) Awards, Best Director of 2012

2012 - TiyatroTiyatro (theatre magazine) Awards, Best Lighting Design of 2012

Performed in, International Theater Festival Ankara (Turkey), Indiciplinaritati Artistice In Balcani, Suceava (Romania), Kurdish Culture Festival, Basel (Switzerland), Theatre Festival Tatvan, Bitlis (Turkey), 4th Berlin Theatre Festival, Şermola Performans Istanbul, Kumbaraci50 Istanbul, Emek Theater Kadikoy/Istanbul, Toy Istanbul, Toy Izmir, Tatavla Theatre Istanbul, Theatron Kadıkoy Istanbul, Municipality Theatre of Diyarbakır, Municipality Theater of Batman, Nusaybin/Mardin, Stockholm, Basel, Kopenhag, London, Doncaster, Theater im Ballsaal Bonn, Urania Theatre Cologne 

- TOTAL 225 SHOWS -

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg_uwmtoDbY

Original name: Bûka Lekî

Characters: 2 females, 1 male

Available in Kurdish and Turkish. 

Published by Avesta in Kurdish (2018)

Published in Kurdish from Avesta Publications in 2018 (Turkey)

Based on Sadegh Hedayat’s ‘Doll Behind the Curtain’.

A man struggling to adapt to life after a traumatic experience...

A woman who always imitates others and models herself on her circle of friends...

And her friend, a woman disconnected from life who stares wide-eyed at everything happening around her.

The three bodies wander around a mannequin as if hovering on the edge of a precipice. 

Since returning from the army, the young man has lost interest in his fiancée and much else besides, so much so that he withdraws from society. But one day, he falls in love with a mannequin in a shop window, buys it and takes it home. His fiancée finds out and, in a bid to win back the young man, tries to make herself more and more like the mannequin. One day, she sneaks into the man’s house, hides the mannequin and stands in for her. That day, the young man gets drunk and arrives home with a gun to rid himself of the mannequin.

World premiere: 17 April 2010

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin

Kurdish-Turkish translation: Reşan İlhan, Mirza Metin

Performed in Şermola Performans Istanbul, 

Theater Festival of Batman Municipality, Batman (Turkey), 

Women Festival of Hasankeyf, Batman (Turkey), 

PeraFest Istanbul, (Turkey)

Original name: Cerb

Characters: 4 females or 4 males

A play without words.

Available in Kurdish

We are watched all the time. We are gradually turning into the very thing we oppose, criticize, fear and avoid. We are becoming the living eye and strength of the mechanism.

What happens if prisoners become the guards of their own imprisonment?

Four guinea-pig prisoners are locked in a cell and banned from speaking. Speaking is punished in different ways. Bodies that can’t speak move; movements become a game, the games a competition for power, the competition for power becomes violence, and violence bloodshed. A new set of guards has emerged in the cell.

World premiere: 16 January 2010, Su Performing Arts Centre, Istanbul

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin

Awards: 10th Lions Theatre Awards, Best Original New Play

Performed in 4. ETHOS International Theatre Festival, Ankara (Turkey), Theatre Festival of Bogaziçi, Istanbul (Turkey), 

4. Theatre Festival Young Stage, Municipality Teheatre Bahçelievler, Istanbul (Turkey), 

Theatre Festival of Young Days, City Theatre Istanbul (Turkey), 

Su Performing Arts Centre, Istanbul, 

Kumbaraci50 Istanbul, 

Oyuncular Theatre Istanbul, 

Şermola Performans Istanbul 

Co-written with Berfin Zenderlioğlu.

Original name: Reşê Şevê

Characters: 1 female, 1 or 2 males

Available in two Kurdish dialect (Kurmanci and Zazaki) 

Published by Avesta in Kurdish (2010)

Published in Kurdish (Kurmanci/Zazaki) from Avesta Publications in 2010 (Turkey)

Kurmanci-Zazaki translation: Roşan Lezgin

Gülizar survives by collecting waste paper from the rubbish. She fled to the city years earlier after being subjected to a forced marriage and persistent male violence in her home village. But her past haunts her in different ways like some kind of nightmare and she shifts constantly between present and past. While coming to terms with the tragedy caused by the men in her past, Gülizar also ridicules the men by reading news stories in the papers she picks up from the rubbish.

World premiere: 3 April 2009, Su Performing Arts Centre, Istanbul

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin

Performed in Theatre Festival of Batman Municipality, Batman (Turkey), Youth Culture Festival Gönen, Balıkesir (Turkey), 

Theatre Festival ODTÜ, Ankara (Turkey), 

14. International Theatre Festival Ankara (Turkey)

Su Performing Arts Centre Istanbul, 

Kumbaraci50 Istanbul, 

Şermola Performans Istanbul, 

Municipality Theatre of Diyarbakır, 

Municipality Theater of Batman, 

Gonen/Bursa, Ankara, Nusaybin/Mardin, Tatvan/Van, Van, Kagızman/Kars, Bismil/Diyarbakır, Dicle/Diyarbakır, Çınar/Diyarbakır, Kiziltepe/Mardin, Güney Theatre Istanbul, Dagpınar/Kars, Suruç/Urfa, Mersin, Adana, Viranşehir/Urfa, Silvan/Diyarbakır, Bahçesaray/Van, Bitlis, Kurtalan/Siirt

Short play

Original name: Qeşmerên Apoletî

Characters: 5 females or 5 males

Available in Kurdish

A group of high-ranking military men are locked in a furious discussion. They talk about a material threat. They suggest numerous ideas and conspiracy theories as to what this threat is. They develop strategies; they make plans. But dissent soon follows and they begin accusing each other of treachery.

World premiere: December 2008, Kadıköy Community Education Centre, Istanbul

Production: Şermola Performans

Director: Mirza Metin 

Performed in Şermola Performans Istanbul, 

Kadikoy Public Education Center Theatre Istanbul