Theater festival closes with magnificent ceremony

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Dutch ensemble Closed Act performed a street show titled ‘Invasion’ at the closing ceremony of the Sabancı International Theater Festival.

The 15th Sabancı International Adana Theater Festival, organized by the Sabancı Foundation and State Theaters in the southern province of Adana, ended on April 30 with a magnificent ceremony.

The festival, which opened on Mach 27 World Theater Day this year, has become a traditional event due to the memory of late businessman Sakıp Sabancı. “Exactly 15 years ago, we set out with a small-scale local festival built upon late Sakıp Sabancı’s dream of converting Adana into a center of arts and culture. Today, we take pride in seeing world-renowned theaters competing to come to Adana. Our festival constitutes a role model for numerous festivals in Turkey in many ways,” said Chairman of the Sabancı Foundation Board of Trustees Guler Sabancı at the opening of the event.

In the closing ceremony, Dutch ensemble Closed Act, which earned the admiration of people through their street shows in Adana in past years, presented a street show called “Invasion,” wearing huge dinosaur costumes on the Uğur Mumcu Square.

The performers, who walked from Atatürk Street to Uğur Mumcu Square with torches, captured the attention of thousands of locals in the city.

Festival highlights

This year the festival, which hosted 23 theater groups, 16 from Turkey and seven from abroad, in Adana and Istanbul, opened with a show by Italian Studio Festi Group on the Seyhan River. To reach more audiences, the opening and closing events of the festival are performed at open-air venues every year.

Exclusively for the festival’s 15th anniversary, Turkey hosted two renowned foreign groups for the first time. One was a Bollywood musical, “Taj Express.” The international musical of India, “Taj Express, Love Has a New Address,” which takes its name from the famous Taj Express train that has been carrying travelers across India since 1964, came to Turkey for the first time and performed for audiences in Istanbul and Adana.

The Globe Theatre, which staged the play “King Lear” in Adana and in Istanbul, was also in Turkey for the first time. The play was staged with the signature of director Bill Buckhurst, who is known for his success in directing Shakespeare plays, and is one of the most famous plays of the Globe Theatre due to its impressive visual quality.

Among the other highlights of the festival, the Czech Srnec Black Light Theater, which is known to be the first ensemble in the world to stage “Black Theater,” presented “Antologia.” Also, Macedonia’s Skopje National Institution of Turkish Theater performed a contemporary family drama in “All My Sons.”

The Adana Theater Festival has become international in scope within a very short period of time. Over the past 14 years, it has hosted 70 international theater ensembles from 66 countries.

This year within the scope of the festival, the Sakıp Sabancı Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to renowned theater actor Rutkay Aziz. Aziz is the chairperson of the Nazım Hikmet Culture and Art Foundation.