North Cyprus gripped by the theatre fever
By Heidi Trautmann
Last year’s poster for the 10th festival
was Sisyphus who tried in vain to roll the stone of his destiny up the rocky
hill knowing that he will not succeed but is forced to try again and again.
This year, for the 11th Cyprus Theatre Festival, the organizer, the
Lefkosa Belediye Theatre in the person of the designer Umut Ersoy have chosen –
with a hind thought I presume – the mythology figure of Prometheus who was
condemned to have his liver torn out by an eagle because he had brought the
light to the humans. Theatre the enlightener. But in the image of the poster
Prometheus rises above the clouds towards the light, he fears not the chains
nor the pain, he progresses towards the aim he has put up for himself. ‘Resisting
to stay human’ is the slogan.
Those were two hard years for the LBT and I admire the
unfailing courage of the company with Yaşar Ersoy at the front to fight for the
existence of the Cyprus theatre and with it the most anticipated event of the
year, the Theatre Festival. I have been witness to the fights, witness to the
protests and also witness to several years of theatre festival.
For years now the famous theatre companies of Turkey
have faithfully and positively answered the invitation by Yaşar Ersoy to come
and perform for the people of Cyprus and every single year we have had the
pleasure of witnessing high quality theatre. Usually, in the past within days
all the tickets were taken and the theatre house was full to the last seat and
students were sitting on the steps.
The press was invited to receive the news of the
confirmed programme from 2 September to 2 October, four weeks with altogether
ten evenings of high class theatre. Yaşar Ersoy (LBT) and Kadri Fellahoğlu,
Mayor of Lefkoşa, welcomed the press representatives, emphasizing the
importance of the theatre in a country. The entire LBT theatre company was
present and we all, including the many sponsors, had the opportunity to talk to
them. Nothing else remains to be done than give an overview of the programme:
Sep 2: Hürrem Sultan by Orhan Asena – Ankara State
Theatre;
Sep 5: Zengin Mutfağı by Vasif Öngören – Istanbul City
Theatre;
Sep 8: Ateşli Sabir by Antonio Skarmeta – Istanbul
City Theatre;
Sep 10: Bu da Geçer Ya Hu by Uğur Saatçı – Trabzon
State Theatre
Sep 13: Sonbahari Beklerken by Gökhan Erarslan – Sadri
Alişik Theatre
Sep 15: Küçük Adam ne oldu sana? by Hans Fallada -
Sadri Alışık Theatre
Sep 17: Toplu Hikayeler by Donald Margulies – Kenter
Theatre
Sep 19: Ben Ödüyorum by Yves Jamiaque – Ankara State
Theatre
Sep 21: Küçük prens by Saint Exupéry – Bitiyatro
Sep 24 and 25: Ada by Athol Fugart – Lefkoşa
Municipality Theatre
Sep 27: Akdeniz by Nesrin Kazankaya Pera Theatre
Sep 30: Othello by W.Shakespeare – Antalya State
Theatre
Oct 2: Söz Meclisten Içeri by Uğur Mumcu – Ankara Ekin
theatre
This year there were many sponsors: Ministry of
Tourism, Environment and Culture; Golden Tulip; Platin, Limassol Bank, Telsim,
Red K-Pet, Konaklama, Salon, Near East University, Gümüş, Eziç, and many more,
mentioned on the Programme.