ELEPHANTS AND ANTS
Written by: Yaşar Kemal
Adapted for the Stage and Directed by: Arzu Gamze Kılınç
Music: Berkay Özideş
Choreography and Lighting Design: Muhammet Uzuner
Poster Design: Ali Can Elagöz
Lighting Control: Ekin Bora Boran
Effects Control: Barış Can Güler
Cast
Boran Özsaygı, Canberk Dikmen, Can Seçki, Derya Özsoy, Dorukhan Kenger, Erdi Öztürk, Murat Aytekin, Nihal Parlak, Onur Çolak, Seren Köken, Serhat Güney.
“When All the Ants of the Earth Unite!”
Adapted by Arzu Gamze Kılınç from Yaşar Kemal's novel The Sultan of the Elephants and the Red-Bearded Lame Ant, Elephants and Ants is a powerful anti-imperialist manifesto brought to the stage.
The play narrates the resistance of the oppressed against the capitalist system of exploitation and cultural assimilation through a mythical allegory. The ants represent the collective power and solidarity of the working class, while the Sultan of Elephants symbolizes the oppression of the bourgeoisie and colonial authority.
Elephants and Ants brings to the stage the struggle for cultural identity, class conflict, criticism of the collaborationist mentality, and the hopeful side of resistance. Yaşar Kemal's powerful work reminds us of the need for unity and solidarity against injustice.
BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER
"I'D PREFER NOT TO"
Written by: Herman Melville
Translated by: Yusuf Eradam
Adapted for the Stage and Directed by:
Muhammet Uzuner
Decor Design: Veli Kahraman
Costume Design: Nihan Şen
Music: Berkay Özideş
Dramaturg: Oya Yağcı
Lighting Design: Muhammet Uzuner
Poster Design: Veli Kahraman
Photos: Gençer Yurttaş
Players
Can Seçki, Dorukhan Kenger, Kerem Aktı, Osman Onur Can, Yusuf Kısa
Light Control: Ekin Bora Boran
Effect Control: Harun Özkan
As a Wall Street story, the story has something to say about today's capitalist world.
19th-century capitalism and the petrified world of capitalist modernity
The narrator of the story creates a historical panorama of the lawyer's hesitant narration about Bartleby.
The alienation created by this soulless world
It offers a critical look at the isolating and conformist nature of modern business life.
From the financial center of a petrified world and the 19th century, what could Bartleby possibly say to today's world?
Cihangir Atölye stage is pursuing this question in the new theatre season…
ONE ACT, 65 MINUTES
2025
YAPI KREDİ
AFIFE THEATRE AWARDS
THE BEST
LIGHT DESIGN
(CANDIDACY)
MUHAMMET UZUNER
2025
YAPI KREDİ
AFIFE THEATRE AWARDS
THE BEST
STAGE DESIGN
(CANDIDACY)
VELI KAHRAMAN
2025
YAPI KREDİ
AFIFE THEATRE AWARDS
BEST MUSIC
(CANDIDACY)
BERKAY ÖZİDEŞ
2025
YAPI KREDİ
AFIFE THEATRE AWARDS
BEST MUSIC
(CANDIDACY)
BERKAY ÖZİDEŞ
FOOT AND LEG FACTORY
Written by: Sermet Cagan
Directed by: Muhammet Uzuner
Music: Berkay Özideş
Choreography: Hicran Akın
Lighting Design: Muhammet Uzuner
Costume and Young Man Puppet Design: Selda Uyan
Game Photos: Aydan Çınar-Sanem Arslantürk
Players
Barış Kaan Güven, Ela Güldüren, Kerem Aktı, Mithat Seçinti, Nihal Parlak, Özge Doğan,
Özgül Boran Özsaygı, Seren Köken, Serhat Güney, Yusuf Kısa
Light Control: Nil İpek
Effect Control: Gözde Yıldız
Sermet Çağan's play Foot-Leg Factory is about feudal lords, politicians and
to protect the interests of the ruling powers, such as judges, under all circumstances
explains how he exploited it.
As long as we exist in this system, the same cycle repeats itself and every citizen
indicating that one cannot escape being oppressed and exploited
The play is one of the first examples of the social realist theatre style that emerged after 1960.
5.
INTERNATIONAL
MALTEPE THEATRE FESTIVAL
YOUNG TALENT
ELA GÜLDUREN
5.
INTERNATIONAL
MALTEPE THEATRE FESTIVAL
BEST DIRECTOR
MUHAMMET UZUNER
32nd SIBIU INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL
2025
YAPI KREDİ
AFIFE THEATRE AWARDS
BEST MUSIC
(CANDIDACY)
BERKAY ÖZİDEŞ
SONG OF THE LUSITANIAN BOGEY
Written by: Peter Weiss
Translated by: Can Yücel
Directed by: Muhammet Uzuner
Choreography: Hicran Akın
Lighting Design: Onur Alagöz
Puppet Design and Construction: Selda Uyan
Production Photography: Samet Sarp
Cast
Alper İrvan, Barış Kaan Güven, Berfin Karatay, Boran Özsaygı
Can Seçki, Dorukhan Kenger, Furkan Özkan
Murat Aytekin, Selda Uyan, Zuhal Atalay
Lighthing Control: Begüm Bıyık
Effects Control: Serhat Güney
Song of The Lusitanian Bogey shares with the audience a critical perspective on how the thirty-six-year reign of Antonio Salazar, who came to power in Portugal in 1932 as a hero, turned into a dictatorship, with oppression, violence, and exploitation increasing day by day, as seen through the eyes of the oppressors and the oppressed.
Through Salazar's Portugal, Song of The Lusitanian Bogey reveals the effects of colonial history, class conflict, and the concept of property ownership on human history since their inception. It narrates the story of colonialism, created by humans and turning them into its own slaves, from the subjective to the universal.
ONE ACT, 50 MINUTES
Saloz's Maval,
Antonio Salazar, who came to power in Portugal in 1932 with a hero's welcome
During his thirty-six years in power, oppression, violence and exploitation have increased day by day.
and how this period turned into a period of dictatorship; it shares with the audience a critical view from the eyes of the oppressors and the oppressed.
In Saloz's Maval, we see the impact of colonialism and class conflict on human history, from the very beginning of the concept of property ownership, through the lens of Salazar's era in Portugal. He recounts the story of colonialism, a self-made and self-enslaved colonialism, from the subjective to the universal.
ONE ACT 50 MINUTES
20.
INTER-PILLAR
AUDIENCE AWARDS
THE BEST
CHOREOGRAPHER
HICRAN AKIN
4.
INTERNATIONAL
MALTEPE
THEATRE FESTIVAL
THE BEST
DIRECTOR
MUHAMMET UZUNER
4.
INTERNATIONAL
MALTEPE
THEATRE FESTIVAL
YOUNG TALENT
ALL PLAYERS
WE WILL NOT PAY
Written by: Dario Fo
Translated by: Füsun Demirel
Directed by: Arzu Gamze Kılınç
Decor Design: Osman Özcan
Lighting Design: Onur Alagöz
Cast:
Alper Irvan, Berfin Karatay, Kıvanç Kılınç, Osman Onur Can, Serpil Göral
The play, which premiered on March 2, 2019, and has been a sold-out show to date, is the most internationally recognized work of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo.
Written in Italian in 1974, "It will not be paid, we will not pay!" still has an extraordinary relevance today.
Criticizing the economic system by addressing the daily life and hardships of the working class struggling with constant and disproportionate price hikes, Fo creates a political comedy by placing the brunt of the moderate opposition.
The play is about people struggling to survive in the Italian slums.
He describes the difficulties they face in their fight against the system in a humorous way.
Women living in slums facing the ever-increasing cost of living
They all decide to shop at the old prices to counter price hikes and seize goods from a supermarket.
ONE ACT 105 MINUTES
46.
İSMET KÜNTAY
THEATRE AWARDS
THE BEST
ACTRESS
SERPİL GORAL
ÜSTÜN AKMEN
2019-2022
THEATRE AWARDS
COMEDY WOMAN OF THE YEAR
ACTOR
SERPİL GORAL
ALMOST EQUAL
Written by: Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Translation: Hasret Güneş
Directed by: Serpil Göral
Music: Berkay Özideş
Choreography: Hicran Akın
Stage-Graphic-Poster Design: Veli Kahraman
Costume Design: Nihan Şen
Lighting Design: Muhammet Uzuner
Game Photos: Aydan Çınar-Sanem Arslantürk
Players
Dorukhan Kenger, Ela Güldüren, Kerem Aktı, Mithat Seçinti, Nihal Parlak
Özge Doğan, Seren Köken, Serhat Güney, Yusuf Kısa
Costume Design: Seren Köken
Assistant Director-Effect Controller: Gözde Yıldız
Light Control: Ekin Bora Boran
“Isn’t economics so boring?
It's full of complicated financial terms. Why do you think so?
The financial system is deliberately complex. We've been deliberately intimidated.
Maybe they don't want us to see something."
The game examines the concept of 'value' through the monetary system.
Is it possible for us to be equal, free, good, right and valuable in the monetary system with our ordinary and unique desires?
Will inflation make us all equal in poverty?
'Almost Equal' describes the equality between us ordinary people created by the monetary system, which is always mathematically possible but will never happen.
ONE ACT, 80 MINUTES
THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS, A LA ALATURKA
THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS A LA TURCA
Written by: Carlo Goldoni
Translated by: Rekin Teksoy
Adapted by: Kıvanç Kılınç
Directed by: Muhammet Uzuner
Music: Berktay Akyıldız
Costume Design: Veli Kahraman
Choreography: Hicran Akın
Lighting Design: Onur Alagöz
Makeup Design: Arzu Gamze Kılınç
Lyrics: Kıvanç Kılınç
Poster Design: Ali Can Elagöz
Orchestra (Studio Recording)
Piano: Berktay Akyıldız
Kanun: Mehmet Orçun Cengiz
Clarinet: Ulaş Uysal
Bass: Ceren Akyıldız
Cast
Alper İrvan, Ayça Öztürk, Berfin Karatay, Canberk Dikmen
Can Seçki, Erdi Öztürk, Gözde Yıldız, Osman Onur Can, Yusuf Kısa
Lighting Control: Ekin Bora Boran
Effects Control: Ela Güldüren
Italian writer Carlo Goldoni's classic comedy, which has been performed worldwide for centuries, is now adapted by Kıvanç Kılınç in an alaturka style, set in 19th-century Istanbul during the final years of the Ottoman Empire...
Kıvanç Kılınç adapted the text by localizing the setting and characters and creating a rhythm using rhyming language.
Muhammet Uzuner staged the performance by synthesizing the folk theater traditions of two Mediterranean countries with many similarities, incorporating elements of “Commedia dell'Arte” and “Ortaoyunu.”
The costume design, original music, and dance also supported this synthesis in the direction.
A world where money is more valuable than anything else... Fathers who disregard their children's happiness for their own interests, lovers trying to live their love despite unpleasant surprises, a servant who serves two masters unaware of each other to satisfy his hunger... All this traffic of interests intertwines with the incompetence of the servant (Arlecchino) Zekai Sarpasaran, who introduces himself as “the rebellious storm of the Black Sea”...
ONE ACT, 80 MINUTES
Italian writer Carlo Goldoni's classic comedy, one of the most performed worldwide for centuries, is now set in 19th-century Istanbul during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, with Kıvanç Kılınç's Turkish-style adaptation.
While adapting the text, Kıvanç Kılınç localized the setting and characters and created a rhythm by using rhyming language.
Muhammet Uzuner staged the folk theatre traditions of two Mediterranean countries, which bear many similarities to each other, by synthesizing the elements of “Commedia dell'Arte” and “Orta Oyunu”.
This synthesis also supported the direction in costume design, original music and dances.
A world of self-interest where money is more valuable than anything else... Fathers who disregard their children's happiness for their own gain, lovers who try to live out their love despite unpleasant surprises, a servant who serves two unknowing masters to satisfy his hunger... All this traffic of self-interest is intertwined with the incompetence of the servant (Arlecchino) Zekai Sarpasaran, who introduces himself as the "rebellious storm of the Black Sea"...
ONE ACT, 80 MINUTES
25,
SADRİ ALIŞIK
ACTOR AWARDS
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
THE BEST
AUXILIARY WOMAN
ACTOR
BERFİN KARATAY (CANDIDACY)
25,
SADRİ ALIŞIK
ACTOR AWARDS
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
THE BEST
Auxiliary Man
ACTOR
CAN SEÇKİ (CANDIDACY)
31st SIBIU INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL