As part of the exhibition The Story Takes Place in Istanbul, Meşher continues to present a selection of films adapted from fictional works in Western literature. The 2019 recorded performance of Frank Castorf’s play Bajazet – en considered Le Théâtre et la peste can be watched on Saturday, April 19th.
Meşher is hosting a special screening that brings together theater and cinema enthusiasts as part of the Story Takes Place in Istanbul exhibition. The 2019 recorded performance of the play Bajazet – en considered Le Théâtre et la peste, by Frank Castorf, one of the important directors of German theater, will meet the audience on Saturday, April 19 at 15.00:XNUMX.
Written by French author Jean Racine in 1672, Bajazet is a tragedy that revolves around political intrigue and passionate relationships in the Ottoman palace. The story, which takes place during the absence of Sultan Murad IV, focuses on power struggles in the closed world of the harem. The characters in the play – favorite concubines, rivals, brothers and viziers – are caught between love and political ambitions, leading to a tragic ending.
One of the most modern interpretations
One of the most modern interpretations of the play, which has remained popular and staged many times, especially in French theater, was staged by Frank Castorf in 2019 under the title Bajazet – en considerant Le Théâtre et la peste, and the recorded play was released as a film the same year. Frank Castorf offers a new interpretation by blending Racine’s classic work with the text Theater and the Plague by French writer Antonin Artaud. Combining Racine’s dramatic language with Artaud’s understanding of theater, Castorf also approaches theater in Bajazet as a field that reveals the existential contradictions of man.
First edition covering all games and final edition corrected by the author
Jean Racine’s tragedy Bajazet was first staged in Paris in 1672 and published the same year, becoming one of the pioneering texts of orientalist literature. Racine provides information about the setting at the beginning of the book; the events take place in the palace, mostly in the harem. The play, adorned with appealing themes such as lust for power, a love triangle, and palace intrigues, ends with murder, suicide, and fratricide. The copy in the exhibition The Story Takes Place in Istanbul is the first edition covering all of Racine’s plays and the last edition corrected by the author; it is accompanied in the exhibition by visual materials related to the stage adaptations made in France in 1937 and 2019.
