Kral Lear (King Lear)
Kocaeli City Theatre’s King Lear (2012-2013) production has traces of Kurosawa and Manga Shakespeare. Scenes of forced hair removal for disguise, katanas, and the use of water below the stage platform, create a powerful and multisensory experience of the demise of a kingdom and its former king. The overwhelming use of the color black alongside the use of slashes of blood transforms the else contemplative interpretations of Shakespeare’s play into a more action-packed rendition.
Cast
Ümit Bakış (Lear)
Engin Benli (France)
Ozan Şahin (Burgundy)
Çağrı Mengüç (Albany)
Utku Oğuz (Cornwall)
Ahmet Yaşar Özveri (Gloucester)
Koray Onur (Kent)
Tekin Ezgütekin (Oswald)
Fatih Sevdi (Edmund)
Serhat Güzel (Edgar)
Erdem Irmak (Fool)
Esra Bezen Bilgin (Regan)
Funda İlhan (Goneril)
Pınar Ünsal (Cordelia)
Production Team
Director
Malcolm Keith Kay
Costume and Décor
Efter Tunç
Lighting
Yaşar Demirkan
Music
Çiğdem Erken
Sound
İlker Sevüker
Choreography
Ferdi Yıldız
Translation
Özdemir Nutku
For more information, visit Tiyatro Online.
Ümit Bakış (Lear) and Ahmet Yaşar Özveri (Gloucester) in Kral Lear (2012-2013), image from Tiyatro Online.
Further Reading
Öğütcü, Murat. “Contemporary Turkish Shakespeares: New Breath to Old Lives.” Early Modern Liveness: Mediating Presence in Text, Stage and Screen. Eds. Danielle Rosvally and Donovan Sherman. London: Arden, 2023. 145-169.
Production notes provided by Associate Professor Dr. Murat Öğütcü, Adıyaman University, Turkey.
