İstanbul Theater Festival tickets on sale this weekend
The festival, held once every two years, will mark its 18th edition from May 10-June 5 in 22 venues around İstanbul, featuring around 100 performances by 45 theater and dance companies from six countries. Turkish theater companies will be joined by visiting troupes from Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland in the program, put together under the main theme “Freedom-Questionings.”
Over 30 plays on the bill will be staged in İstanbul for the first time. The festival is serving as co-producer in four new productions to premiere during the festival. Three William Shakespeare classics -- a German production of “Hamlet,” Turkish company Oyun Atölyesi’s “Antonius ile Kleopatra” (Antony and Cleopatra), which is also set for a London stint in May as part of the Globe to Globe festival, and another Turkish production of “Macbeth” by Tiyatro Pangar -- are also on the bill.
The festival will open with performances on May 5 the at Fulya Art Center by the Shanghai Song and the Beijing Opera, who will be visiting on the occasion of the ongoing Year of Chinese Culture in Turkey.
The festival’s official opening will be marked with a gala on May 9 that will see Turkish thespians Başar Sabuncu, Cüneyt Türel and Germany’s Thomas Ostermeier -- the artistic director of the Schaubühne Berlin, who will stage his rendition of “Hamlet” as part of the festival -- receive the festival’s awards of honor.