Memoirs of a Woman narrates the story of a woman’s journey from the dream of a happy home to the nightmare of domestic violence. The play utilizes interactive theater methodology, and tackles the issue of mental and physical abuse inflicted upon women and its effect on the family unit. Through audience participation, Memoirs of a Woman explores the ways and means to prevent domestic violence.
Theatre Painted Bird, founded in 2000, is the first professional feminist theatre company in Turkey. “Nora/Nûrê”, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, was the first and only Kurdish project of the group. By working with feminist dramaturgy the group found some resemblances between Ibsen’s Nora and the kilam “Saliho and Nûrê” are narrated by dengbêjs. By messing with men’s affairs Nora dishonored Torvald and Nûre dishonored Salih. In the final scene when Nora leaves her Doll House, in the kilam Nûre was killed by her husband. During the play Nûre used different masks. There wasn’t a realistic scenery. The play wasn’t Kurdicized but it unveiled in Kurdish language the same oppression experienced by the women all over the world.
The Real Gala is a comedy for two staged by Tiyatrotem. Mrs. Müesser and Mr. Lütfi who are not performers come to the stage for the first time to tell their life story. They can not start to tell their own stories since they are so excited about being on stage. What they try to tell about their life is based on third-page tragicomic news and today’s rated and popular television programs. Are they real or fake? When it comes to the pathetic stories, their presence on stage begins to change and they make the audience believe what they tell through the joyful and painful stories. However, in the end, they confess that none of them belongs to their own.
The Real Gala combines the traditional storytelling forms with the questions of representation and theatricality and it concerns the relations between the self and role, reality and fiction, telling and performing, authenticity and insincerity.
Thousands of great stories that formed humanity’s imagination up until now, has been erased, forged or appropriated. The continuous occupation of Jerusalem turned it into a battered spirit. I Am Jerusalem gives the city a voice to talk about the atrocities it lived throughout history, embodied in a form of a woman presenting all her stories. This play has sparked a large debate over the issues dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The play in itself, however, is not political in nature. It is a love story and the intention of it is to highlight the plight of the Palestinians, both under occupation & those who are refugees and have lives abroad. The protagonists, Joumana and Rami have to decide between living their romantic Western fantasy or staying in their homes and country. On the other hand, we have Lama and Ali, a Palestinian couple who settle for the life they live. They find love in each other, which is not ideal, but realistic and heart-warming. It shows the difference between sticking to one’s roots and finding a safer and romantic way of living as reflected in both Jomana & Rami’s relationship and Lama & Ali’s relationships as well. Samah once mentioned also that Joumana’s romantic dilemma represents the metaphor of Palestinians who dream of being reunited with their homes and lands that they were forced to leave.
Ishtar in Baghdad focuses on female detainees. The play is based on a real incident in 2004 in which female Iraqi prisoners were insulted, beaten and raped. One of the prisoners managed to smuggle a letter to her tribe and urged them to bomb the jail. This coded letter meant that they had been raped and thereby dishonoured, and the only way to purify them was to kill them. The script is a dramatical fantasy, as the events are told by Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of war, sex, beauty and fertility, and her lover Tammuz, the god of food and nature. The two deities descend to Baghdad in 2004 to share with Iraqis their descendants the calamities of war. Ishtar is caught by the US marines and imprisoned in Abu Ghraib prison where she meets Iraqi women detainees. As Ishtar gets into the cell, she witnesses women’s miseries. They are all naked, curled in one corner; they are arguing about the way to purify themselves from this disgrace.
Kamilya is operating with all means to prevent Jewish settlers in the old city of Jerusalem from confiscating Haji Saleh’s old café. The haji is her late father in law. Half Sack of Bullets takes place on the cafe’s grand opening night, as Kamilya tells us the real story of the fall of Al Kastal.