”Powder Keg” By Dejan Dukovski Directed by Yildiray Sahinler

People’s theater of Istanbul   Dejan Dukovski’s  “Powder keg” has been performed in many European countries but also outside of Europe. This theatrical master-piece comprises of 11 different stories connected as a whole. The idea of Dukovski is to present the Balkan through the metaphoric syntagma: a powder keg, everybody wants to get away, what happens next? Here starts the motivation of the characters and their actions: murders, mutilations, betrayal, conspiracy, unsuccessful attempts. These marginalized characters are unpredictable, frustrated and often end up as victims of murder or suicide, or they continue towards the dead end, numb and nostalgic, personalities that have no idea how to be normal, continuing their gene-inscribed recipe for life. Every scene in “Powder keg” can exists on its own, and always one of the characters in a scene appears in the next, so these characters like ghosts create the unity of the play. In the first and last scene of the play the same names appear, but they are different in time and space, dream/reality and the whole ambience and action of the characters. “Powder keg” is a hyper realistic allegory of the Balkan socio-cultural stereotype.   Yildiray Sahinler is a graduate of the Faculty of dramatic arts in Istanbul (1990) and begins his professional career n the Istanbul theatre- Sehir Tiyatrosu in 1986.  He has always worked as an actor and director performing the role of Lopahin, Gilgamesh, Stanley (Birthday party), while as a director he has signed the productions of Tartuu, Birthday party, A day in flames, No man’s land. He is the founder and artistic director of the Istanbul Halk Theatre which he established in 2006. He teaches at several Universities in Turkey, and currently is the artistic director of the University for Theatre in Istanbul, Halk Theatre.   Cast: Aytek Enal Basak Gümülcinelioglu Erkan Can Faruk Akergen Ruhi Sari Riya Enal Ashkin Senol Bahtiyar Engin Yildiray Sahinler