created by Firuze engin
Çirkin is a surreal betrayal story told using ‘Live Theatre’ and ‘Virtual Reality’ based on ancient folk tales from the Anatolian region.
Çirkin tells the story of an unknown place and time in a sometimes funny, sometimes eerie way. Showing two different time periods in their life, the play depicts the ill fated Şiva and her companion Chicken who have been cursed to live forever and atone for their past mistakes.
On a simple and bare stage, we will see Şiva and the Chicken as modernized versions of “meddah”s who are traditional Turkish storytellers. These two characters will create the non-physical world of the play through presentational theatre. While the audience will see the current day on stage, at times they will be transported to Şiva’s past through the use of virtual reality.
It’s an 80-minute play, majority being a-physical theatre performance based on the Art of Meddah from Anatolian culture with intervals of a 30-minute VR film.
Reference image taken from “Frogman” by Curious Directive.
One Play - Two Countries: Turkey and the Netherlands
The original text created by Firuze Engin is intended to be staged in Turkey and in Netherlands simultaneously. Our scenes in VR are easily localised to Dutch so theatre makers from both countries can focus on the live stage performance. Currently, we are looking for more Dutch partners from the theatre industry to help develop the Dutch version of the experience. If you would like to get in touch about a possible partnership feel free to drop an email to Firat.
SO FAR:
We have won Kaleidoscope Fund - Transformation Development Award which is a specific award for the best project in development that utilises Stage Performance and VR. The voting is done by a jury of international XR professionals.
We have partnered up with 7 Hills Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organisation that aims to to promote contemporary art in The Netherlands with a focus on Turkey and the surrounding countries within a global perspective making them a perfect organisation for this project.
We are extremely happy to announce the financial support of the Kingdom of Netherlands via their Consulate-General in Istanbul.
Mood Video for VR scenes.
Creative Team :
Writer/Director: Firuze Engin is an award winning playwright based in Istanbul. She is one of the founders of Tiyatro Bereze, an acclaimed space for unconventional plays. Apart from previous awards, in 2015 she won the Cevat Fehmi Baskut Special Prize at the prestigious 19th Afife Jale Theater Awards. Most recently, Firuze was commissioned to write a play to be staged by a joint initiative between the five biggest arts foundations in Turkey lead by the Istanbul Foundation for Arts and Culture.
VR Director: Deniz Tortum’s films have screened at many film festivals including Venice Film Festival, Rotterdam, SxSW, Sheffield, True/False and Dokufest. He worked at the MIT Open Documentary Lab focusing on VR research. He curated and produced the new media sections of !f Istanbul and Camden Film Festival. His last film PHASES OF MATTER premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2020. He was recently featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film.
