Teatra Jiyana Nû is a Kurdish Theatre Company based in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey established in 1992. It is one of the best known theatre groups in the

Kurdish language Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language or dialect continuum, group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Ira ...

and several of their former actors founded new theatre groups in other cities.

Origins

Kurdish Theatre was for long prohibited in Turkey just as was the Kurdish language. In the Kurdish provinces in Turkey, Kurdish language plays were not able to be performed legally. A legal Kurdish theatre culture was first known in Istanbul, after the Kurdish language was allowed to be spoken in 1991. The same year, the Mesopatamia Cultural Center (, NÇM; , MKM) was established in Istanbul. The MKM had an art department which included a theatre group. The first theatre play performed in 1991 was (mouse).

History

After a theatre festival in

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

the next year in which the theatre group of the MKM consisting of Kazim Öz and Kemal Organ among others performed ''Bu Şivan'' (Two shepherds), the Teatra Jiyana Nu was founded and in June 1992. In the TJN subdivision Theatre Helin apprentices were trained for two years after which they were able to try their acting at the Sarya Halk Sahnesi which staged short

agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...

sketches on strikes or union gatherings.Baş, Elif (September 2015), p. 320 Several plays written by Hüseyin Kaytan such as ''Daweya Cenaralê Teneke'' (

Tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

General Case) were performed by the TJN until 1995. But according to Erdal Ceviz, the successor of Kaytan, his play were too poetic and complex for the actors who were not used to read Kurdish texts. Therefore for the TJN began a new era with no pre-written texts but plays developed through collective brainstorming under Ceviz.Baş, Elif (2015).pp.320–321 In the late 1990s the police executed several raids on Kurdish theatre venues and the theatre stage in Istanbul was closed down in 1998.{{Cite book , last=Çelik , first=Duygu , url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110599626/html?lang=de , title=Kurdish Art and Identity , date=2020-09-07 , publisher=

De Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

, isbn=978-3-11-059962-6 , editor-last1=Korangy , editor-first1=Alireza , pages=107 , language=en , doi=10.1515/9783110599626 , s2cid=225263554 As a result, the TJN organized a theatre tour through more than ten cities in Germany with their play ''Bridge of Culture.'' In 2003 the TJN performed their first foreign piece with

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

' play

Prometheus bound ''Prometheus Bound'' () is an ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ante quem of 424 BC. The tragedy is based on the myth of Prometheus, ...

.Rostami, Mari R. (2021), p. 736 A Kurdish adaption of the South African

Athol Fugard Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard (; 11 June 19328 March 2025) was a South African playwright, novelist, actor and director. Widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright and acclaimed as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaki ...

s Island in 2004 and the Accidental Death of an Anarchist by

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

in 2005 were other foreign adaptions.

References

Kurdish culture Kurdish-language culture Theatre of Turkey 1992 establishments in Turkey Kurdish words and phrases