PROJECT BLOG
Ibsen's A Doll's House in Kurdish.
The performance Nora. Nûrê by Theatre Painted Bird was the first production of an Ibsen play in Kurdish in Turkey.
Nora. Nurè combines the story of the two women Nora and Nûrê. The performance challenges the boundaries between classic and contemporary visions, the East and the West, the traditional and the modern. The similarities between the stories of Nûrê, originally told by traditional Kurdish storytellers, and the Norwegian Nora add a universal dimension to Ibsen’s play.
Nora. Nûrê premiered in Batman, Turkey on 3 March 2010 and has since been staged in Diyarbakir, Ankara, Izmi, Mersin and during the International Istanbul Theatre Festival 2010. The performance also visited Skien during Skien International Ibsen Conference in 2010.
Now a written translation of Ibsen's A doll's House, Bir Bebek Evi, has been published in Turkey.
Nora Nûre keeps slamming doors
Turkish Translation and Dramaturgy: FERIDE ERALP, JALE KARABEKIR
Kurdish Translation: AYDIN ORAK
Regie: JALE KARABEKIR
Regie Assistants: AYDIN ORAK, FERIDE ERALP
Performers: SENGÜL ÖZDEMIR, AYDIN ORAK, REMZI PAMUKÇU
Music: MURAT HASARI
Costume and Mask Design: KÜBRA ERISIR
Theatre Painted Bird’s voyage with Henrik Ibsen’s Nora, a symbol of the women’s liberation movement, is still far from over. Nora’s words have not yet been exhausted and her struggle for liberation still continues, in Turkey as well as all over the world. Which is why Theatre Painted Bird once again presents “Nora/Nûrê”, which is Ibsen’s “A Dollhouse” performed in Kurdish, in a way which challenges the boundaries between classic and contemporary, the east and the west, traditional and modern in the staging of plays. After being accorded the 2009 Ibsen Award and traveling within and outside the country with this play, Theatre Painted Bird shall once again “slam many doors,” as Nora sheds her masks, casting off all the roles of mother, daughter and wife assigned to her by the patriarchy: Nora’s and Nûrê’s combined voices, which have echoed through Batman, Diyarbakir, Van, Dogubeyazit, Kars-Dagpinar, the Istanbul International Theatre Festival and the Ibsen Conference in Skien, Norway, are now ready to make themselves heard in Kumbaraci50, Istanbul on the 13th and 20th of October, then once again in the same venue on the 10th of November as part of the Pera Theatre Festival (Pera Fest) and also in the International Ankara Theatre Festival taking place between the 26th of November and 6th of December.
“A Dollhouse” may be a play written by a Norwegian playwright in 1876, but the story of Norwegian Nora is not limited to that specific time and place only. It confronts us in a Kurdish classic, the tale of “Saliho and Nûrê”, carried on by dengbej - Kurdish story-tellers, the bearers of tales - such as Semdin, Karapete Xaco and Sakiro... When Saliho, Nûrê’s cousin and lover, gets jailed in Diyarbakir, Nurê goes and talks to prosecutors and judges, writes petitions and bribes judges so as to save him; but the moment Saliho is free, the first thing he does is kill Nûrê, right in the middle of the town, in front of the Grand Mosque (Ulu Camii); because, according to him, “Nûrê has not known her place as a woman and meddled with men’s affairs, trespassed into the male society.” “I shall kill you, because you dare appear in front of the government.” is what he says. By poking her nose into ‘men’s affairs’ Nûrê has dishonoured Saliho. Just like Nora dishonoured Torvald… Nora/Nûrê. These two women not only share the same name – since Nora comes from Eleonora, the Latin word for light, while Nûrê comes from Nur, the same word in Arabic – but also the same story. Even though time and place may differ, this story of womanhood essentially remains the same. Today as well as in Nora’s or Nûrê’s day... Our aim is to express Nora’s, Nûrê’s and our own words and to tell these stories together within one play. All we strive to do is recount one tale in the language of the other and shed light on the universal story of womanhood.
Jale Karabekir
Nora Nûre
Nora Nûre opens in Batman, Turky on March 3rd 2010.
Responsible for the project is director Jale Karabekir and Theatre Painted Bird.The performance will also be playd in Diyarbakir, Ankara, Izmir and Mersin, Turky and during The International Istanbul Theatre Festival 2010.
Tiyatro Boyalı Kuş/Theatre Painted Bird
Theatre Painted Bird (Tiyatro Boyalı Kuş), a member of the Magdalena Project: International Network of Women in Contemporary Theatre and International Theatre of the Oppressed Organisation, is an Istanbul-based theatre company established in 2000. Today, Theatre Painted Bird is the oldest active feminist-identified theatre company in the country. It is also one of a handful of forum theatre companies in the world that focus on women’s issues. We have been awarded an Ibsen Scholarship for our last project, an adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Developed by Ertug Altinay and staged by Jale Karabekir, this will be a feminist production of Ibsen’s masterpiece in Kurdish. Until a few years ago, it was banned in Turkey to publish or broadcast in Kurdish language. Since the repeal of the ban, there has been a significant increase in stage productions in Kurdish. However, as a consequence of the decades of oppression, the impact of these productions have been rather limited. Thanks to the generous support from the Ibsen Scholarship, we will be able to stage one of the first major stage productions in Kurdish in the country. We will be staging the play not only in Istanbul but also in the Southeast of the country, where the majority of the population speaks Kurdish. Currently, we are in the process of establishing contacts to stage the play in European cities with Kurdish populations. Visit their website here.
