Theatre Hayal Perdesi was founded by the actress/ transnational Artist and Director Selin Iscan in Istanbul, in 2013 to offer an alternative creative space for national and international troupes. The company has its own stage in Taksim, the heart of Istanbul, Turkey. The company’s mission is to carry out its projects freely and without censorship in Turkey. Having been forced to permanently close the “Hayal Perdesi Beyoğlu Stage” building in the center of Istanbul due to increasing terrorist bombings in 2017, the company began staging its productions in multiple different venues. HayalPerdesi Beyoğlu Stage contributed new perspectives to Istanbul’s cultural scene, uniting İstanbul’s audiences with innovative and alternative art. Host to various National and International Artists projects; about 115 theater ensembles with 125 different shows along with many concerts, workshops and acting classes between 2013-2017 .
The company’s first production, “The Empire Builders” by Boris Vian, was invited to various international theater festivals, including Skopje, Cyprus, Avignon, Berlin, and the 68.Edinburgh Fringe Festival as the first Turkish language theater play. In Milan, the production was nominated for the “Il Teatro Nudo di Teresa Pomodoro” Internatınal Theater Prize and received awards “Best Production, Best Director, Best Actress” in Turkey.
Hayal Perdesi has the honour of participating to the Avignon OFF Theatre Festival 2016 with two production (The Empire Builders & The Three Sisters) with 20 shows and then being a part of the French Institute’s program “Vive le Fringe!” with “The Empire Builders” in the 69th Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Theater Hayal Perdesi performed 56 shows with two production (“The Three Sisters, The Empire Builders“) in Europe before the pandemic.
Hayal Perdesi Berlin
The founder of the company, Selin İşcan, created “HayalPerdesi Berlin” in 2018 with the Berlin Cultural Senate Scholarship.
The first production performed was a revised version of the adaptation of “The Three Sisters“, freely inspired by Anton Chekhov. “Waiting for The Three Sisters” won the “Direklerarası Audience Prize” in that same year. Since 2019, Theater Hayal Perdesi has been performing at tak Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg and with the support of tak’s new management, has been developing new plays and formats. In February 2023, “ZBAM!” by Sirvan Akan ( co-production tak Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg ) and directed by Selin İşcan premiered in tak Theater Berlin. “Rosa Luxemburg“ Theater Hayal Perdesi, which received project support from Dezentrale Kulturarbeit Schöneberg Municipality, translated the play Rosa Luxemburg from Turkish into German and presented it to the audience as a reading theater in both Turkish and German for the first time in Germany in June 2023.
“Three different productions will continue to be staged in Turkey and in Germany throughout the summer and autumn seasons, including The Three Sisters at various festivals and venues in Turkey .
Rosa Luxemburg goes to Frankfurt Go-West Summer Festival in 2024 . Additionally, “Waiting for Three Sisters” will be performed at Ballhaus Prinzenalle Theatre on September & October 2024 in Berlin .
The company continues its projects based in Istanbul, fostering intercultural and international connections while also developing new plays, formats, and co-productions.
Reviews:
“Thanks to Theatre Hayal Perdesi’s perky surtitled production of The Empire Builders, a 1959 political farce in which a family keeps being moved upstairs into smaller premises.” Mark Lawson – Guardian
“…a group of performers from Istanbul is making a different kind of history in Edinburgh. The Empire Builders is the first known Turkish language play to make it to the Fringe.” The Times
★★★★ “Turkish theatre company Hayal Perdesi, a vital alternative creative space in Turkey, have won awards all over Europe for their ingenious production of Boris Vian’s absurdist, arcane play The Empire Builders. A popular Milano theatre rag captured the production’s appeal which transcends Europe’s borders, describing it as a “beautiful” triumph, succeeding “where the European politicians have failed.” – The Skinny
“Turkish theater resists terrorism on stage.” – La Provence, France
“Compagnie Hayal Perdesi succeeded where European leaders failed.” Krapp’s Last Post, Milan
