2 - Didactic Realism: Aras Ören and Working-Class Culture

Summary

IN THE SECOND INSTALLMENT of Aras Ören's narrative poems constituting the Berlin trilogy (1973–80), we encounter a two-line reference to the Dram Tiyatro, the oldest theater in Istanbul. Apart from being the location of an encounter between two characters in the story, and the mentioned detail of torn Brecht posters in front of it, this passage appears in the narrative poem without being supplemented by additional references to its historic, cultural, and political significance. The Dram Tiyatro has a special place in Turkish theater history, in particular with regard to Brecht. Indeed, the “Brecht incident” discussed at length in the previous chapter made the Dram Tiyatro not merely the center of Turkish debates on the politics and possibilities of a revolutionary theater, but also the site to which an international discussion of Turkish cultural politics referred. These public discussions led to an increased interest in Brecht and an intensive engagement with Brecht's writings on epic theater, and Haldun Taner's success with his play The Ballad of Ali Keshan, which employs a Brechtian epic mode and premiered on March 31 of the same year, further intensified the interest in Brecht's dramatic theory and practice.

The transformation and politicization of Turkish theater throughout the 1960s constitutes an important context for Ören's oeuvre after his emigration to Germany—a period during which he has said he “looked for a home in political theories as well as on theater stages.” Indeed, during the 1960s Ören worked as an actor and dramaturg with different theaters in Istanbul, West Berlin, and Frankfurt am Main. His engagement in theater began in Istanbul at the Gençlik Tiyatrosu in 1959. By invitation of the Goethe University's student theater Neue Bühne in Frankfurt/Main, he participated as an actor in two productions in 1962, Nelly Sachs's Eli (1950) and Bertolt Brecht's Die Ausnahme und die Regel (The Exception and the Rule). The latter production even toured Turkey, with performances in Istanbul, for the international student theater festival, as well as in Ankara and Ordu. Besides working closely with Ongoren in various plays with the Genclik Tiyatrosu ensemble, Ören further collaborated on multiple occasions with Sermet Çağan as a member of the Gen-Ar Tiyatrosu ensemble (founded in 1963) and the TÖS Theater discussed in the previous chapter.