The Satiriko Theatre in Nicosia will stage the Turkish play The Missing by young writer, director, poet and playwright Aliye Ummanel on Monday in its original language with Greek and English subtitles.
The play, which has just finished a run in Istanbul, touches on themes that leave you questioning life and death, topics that affect us all on individual, human and universal levels.
As Ummanel explains, there are no references to place and time and the characters in the play are not given names as we understand them, names which may link them to a country or nationality. Instead, the characters on stage are given titles such as: Grandfather, Mother or The Young Man.
Ummanel also chose to use names from some of Shakespeare’s plays for her characters, such as Hamlet, Horatio and the Gravedigger.
“Missing is a play which starts from very specific issues, that of missing persons of war and combines this theme with a more abstract issue and questions of what is missing for the post-war generation?” The playwright begins her explanation of the concept behind the play and referring to the time frame in which the play is set says “it is anywhere and anytime after war.”
With this being said, Ummanel tries to bring forth a feeling of empathy and help audience members realise a sense of confrontation. “That is why the play takes on a very humanistic approach which tries to find what is common rather than what is separating,” she adds.
This feeling of having something in common is something that the playwright wishes to bring to all audiences, but more importantly to the Cypriot audience. “I try my best to make sure as Cypriots we can see this play together in Cyprus and share the same experience, seeing that we have actually been sharing the same experience.
“I try my best to contribute peace in my own way which is my art and I aim for what unites, what is common instead of what separates.
“The performance at the Satiriko Theatre is one of these steps. I am so excited that we are performing with Greek subtitles. This is a dream come true for me.”
After receiving pretty much the same kind of reaction from the audience in Istanbul, the play itself has achieved what the writer wanted: to be received on a humanistic and universal level.
The play can easily be taken out of Cyprus or Turkey and it will be understood by each theatregoer differently while also allowing them not to feel alienated.
Ummanel elaborates on this theme by saying “each audience can find what is missing in his society, and all societies that have some kind of conflict inevitably have missing persons, or a post conflict generation that has missed something about life like hope or future.”
The theme of promoting peace and how war can affect the people it touches seem to weave a threat through Ummanel’s work. Her play, Passa Tempo, which was premiered in Paris during a festival to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, deals with time and the traces of war upon the generation who lives through the war and the next generation who is left with the aftermath effects.
Ummanel invites us all to view the play which will hopefully help us find what is missing in our own experience of living, and also “remember our story in a very human way, without any nationalistic approach.”
Information
Performance of the play by Aliye Ummanel. January 19. Vladimiros Kafkarides Cultural Centre, 11 – 15 Vladimiros Kafkarides Street, Αglantzia, Nicosia. 8.30pm. Free. In Turkish with Greek and English subtitles. Tel: +357 22312940.
Source: Cyprus Mail
