Istanbul Theatre Festival Reveals Programme For 27th Edition

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and supported by Koç Holding Energy Group Companies Aygaz, Entek, Opet, and Tüpraş, the 27th Istanbul Theatre Festival opens its curtains on 25 October with a packed programme.

The festival is preparing to greet audiences from 25 October–25 November. In the second and final year of Işıl Kasapoğlu’s curatorship, the festival will host 20 theatre and dance performances from Turkey and abroad. Tickets go on sale on Friday 8 September.

The festival brings together directors and choreographers who have left their mark on today’s theatre, and the artists who are shaping the future of performing arts. The programme includes 11 productions from Turkey and 9 productions from Germany, England, Denmark, France, Georgia, Ireland, Israel and Greece.

The 27th Istanbul Theatre Festival stands out with its variety of staging styles and genres. Festival audiences are offered a wide range of works from documentary theatre to classical stagings, contemporary dance to mask theatre, puppet cinema to site-specific works, dance theatre to performative installations. In the festival’s local productions programme, young-generation writers, directors and actors, original and new texts are introduced. Many experienced actors, including Ercan Kesal, Nesrin Kazankaya, Bülent Emin Yarar, Çiçek Dilligil, Okan Bayülgen, Deniz Türkali and Meral Çetinkaya, also take the stage.

The dance section of the international programme includes the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch's masterpiece, Café Müller, performed by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch; a thrilling double bill by internationally celebrated choreographer Hofesh Shechter, Double Murder; and Benched, a brutally honest bodily tale about finding one’s place in life by Uppercut Dance Theater of Denmark.

The international programme will also present Soeurs by the acclaimed writer and director Wajdi Mouawad, who was previously a festival guest with Seuls in 2017; Feste by Familie Flöz, the company credited worldwide for the rediscovery of mask theatre; Republic of Baklava by Anestis Azas, whom critics hailed as the pioneer of the new generation Greek theatre; and Masterclass from Brokentalkers, considered one of the bravest and most ground-breaking theatre companies in Ireland.

Performances will take place for a month in 15 different venues on both sides of the Bosphorus; Alan Kadıköy Theatre, Atlas 1948 Cinema, Büyük Zarifi Apartment, Caddebostan Cultural Centre, DasDas, Fişekhane, Galatasaray High School, Harbiye Muhsin Ertuğrul Stage, Hope Alkazar, İş Towers Hall, Metro Han, Notre Dame de Sion French High School, Saint Benoit French High School, Süreyya Opera, and Zorlu Performing Arts Centre.

Festival tickets can be purchased through the festival's official ticket provider, Passo or at the İKSV box office.

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