Istanbul Theater Festival announces program

ISTANBUL

The 27th Istanbul Theater Festival will open its curtains on Oct. 25. In the second and final year of Işıl Kasapoğlu’s curatorship, the festival will host 20 theater and dance performances from Türkiye and abroad.

The festival will bring together directors and choreographers who have left their mark on today’s theater, and the artists who are shaping the future of performing arts. The program includes 11 productions from Türkiye and nine productions from Germany, England, Denmark, France, Georgia, Ireland, Israel and Greece.

Festival audiences will be offered a wide range of works from documentary theater to classical staging, contemporary dance to mask theater, puppet cinema to site-specific works, dance theater to performative installations.

The dance section of the international program includes the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch's masterpiece, “Café Müller,” performed by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch; a thrilling double bill by internationally celebrated choreographer Hofesh Shechter, “Double Murder;” and “Benched,” a brutally honest bodily tale about finding one’s place in life by Uppercut Dance Theater of Denmark.

The international program will also present "Soeurs” by the acclaimed writer and director Wajdi Mouawad, who was previously a festival guest with Seuls in 2017; Feste by Familie Flöz, the company credited worldwide for the rediscovery of mask theatre; Republic of Baklava by Anestis Azas, whom critics hailed as the pioneer of the new generation Greek theatre; and Masterclass from Brokentalkers, considered one of the bravest and most ground-breaking theatre companies in Ireland.

Performances will take place for a month in 15 different venues on both sides of the Bosphorus, including Alan Kadıköy Theater, Atlas 1948 Cinema, Büyük Zarifi Apartment, Caddebostan Cultural Center, DasDas, Fişekhane, Galatasaray High School, Harbiye Muhsin Ertuğrul Stage, Hope Alkazar, İş Towers Hall, Metro Han, Notre Dame de Sion French High School, Saint Benoit French High School, Süreyya Opera, and Zorlu Performing Arts Center.

Festival tickets will go on sale on Sept. 8.