ARMENIAN PLAY AT TRABZON THEATER
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 7 2007
The slaying of Agos’ weekly newspaper Editor in Chief Hrant Dink
has brought the issue of violence in the city of Trabzon into the
limelight again.
There is another side to Trabzon, though. The Trabzon Art Theater
has been staging a play by Hagop Boranyan titled "Baðdasar Kardeþ"
(Brother Baðdasar) for the past two months. Director Boranyan,
who spoke to Dink a short while ago, said: ‘He was not an enemy
of Turks; he had promised to help us stage the play in Ýstanbul’
Although spoken about throughout the nation for a different reason,
Trabzon has been responding to violence and discrimination through
art. Hagop Boranyan — who is of Armenian origin and whose ancestors
lived in Ýstanbul during the days of the Ottoman Empire — has been
staging his play "Baðdasar Kardeþ" in Trabzon for two months with no
problems. The play’s translator, Diran Lokmagozyan, is a writer for
Agos — the newspaper for which Hrant Dink was the editor in chief —
while the stage manager is Hrant Hakobyan, who was a personal friend
of Dink’s. The play, a co-production between Armenians and Turks with
a cast of 10 people, was staged in Armenia during Ottoman rule.
Necati Zengin, stage producer at the Trabzon Art Theater, said:
"Trabzon is a city that has an interest in theater. It is important to
both see and display this side of Trabzon." Zengin said he had some
hesitations going into the project but added that they "received no
negative reactions during rehearsals and the staging of the play.
Our attendees are from every segment of society."
Zengin discovered the play during a visit to Yerevan during in
October. Hrant Hakobyan, who lent his full support to Zengin, helped
with preparations to have the play performed in Trabzon. "Bagdasar
Kardeþ" is is the end result of a 40-day process of preparation.
The play, which tells the story of the relationship between a
middle-aged man, his young wife and a third person, is being staged
in Turkish for the first time at the Huseyin Kazak Cultural Center.
Zengin says the play "may initially seem like a play about a love
triangle, but it is actually a parody of the meaningless relationships
that we see in the tabloids every day — ones that are labeled ‘love’
— it’s a mockery of such relationships."
The play features Ýbrahim Gursoy, Suleyman Sýrtkaya, Songul Kamber,
Tarýk Kemerci and Filiz Aydýn in the lead roles and will be on tour in
Armenia in May of this year. Stage manager Zengin has indicated that
there will be no changes in their program because by recent events. The
play will be staged at Trabzon Huseyin Kazaz Culture Center on Feb. 16
at 7.p.m. and in March. For more information, call 0 462 321 47 03.
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[FOOTNOTE]
‘ Dink wanted to stage the play in Ýstanbul’ Zengin visited Dink at the
Agos office in Ýstanbul on his way back from Tehran. He spoke about
that day, saying" "I saw Hrant Dink for about three hours. During
our meeting the play ‘Bagdasar Kardeþ’ came up. He mentioned this
play in two or three of his articles for Agos.
He added that he wanted the play to be performed in Ýstanbul and said
he would do anything he could to help with the arrangements. We lost
him shortly thereafter. It feels like the death of a sibling for me;
he was absolutely not an enemy of Turkey."
07.02.2007
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