By Heidi Trautmann …
An absurd play. Absurd, really?
The première on Saturday Feb 03, 2018 at the LBT (Nicosia Municipality Theatre), the beloved small theatre that has been fighting for more space for so many years now, was full with 150 seats.
Among the guests were the new Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman and his wife and the Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay and his wife. It’s been a while since we 
have seen a new play lately, as the company has been travelling with their last plays, successfully, in the South and in Turkey. I was missing them. BRT 1 was there for the première with Kadri Esemen and his equipment and a handful of cultural journalists, so you may read about it.
‘Absurd’? commented my friend sitting next to me, ‘No, it is often everyday reality’. A couple working themselves up into 
a frenzy while a war is happening outside their windows and if it touches them, they take the things as they come. People wrapped up in their own small senseless world hardly ever realizing what is going on around them, fighting their daily fights 
about nothing.
It was so well played by Hatice Tezcan and Osman Ates, so easily and convincingly that I gasped at the ring of reality of it. Nehir Demirel, who directed the play, gave the absurdity of the play, the irony of it, the right platform and the stage and costumes designed by Özlem Deniz Yetkili were just perfect, a modern concept.
From now on the play will be shown every Friday and Saturday at 20:00 hrs. It is in Turkish but even without understanding much of the dialogue, it is a pleasure to watch the acting. Please call (0392) 227 8782 for tickets.
Frenzy for Two by Eugène Ionesco, translated by Ülkü Tamer
Cast
Man: Osman Ateş
Woman: Hatice Tezcan
Neighbours: Aytunç Şabanli and Melek Erdil
Soldiers and Civilians: Izel Seylani, Melihat Melis Beşe, Cem Aykut, Pinar Inandım, Umut Ersoy.
Additional note from Heidi Trautmann:
I would like to add, that some years ago, on several occasions, I took some friends of our English speaking community to this specific theatre. They enjoyed the acting very much although they did not understand the dialogues but they had read the plot. It is a pity that people avoid going to our local theatre because they think it is all about language, it is not, it is about acting, choreography, the members of a theatre company who work hard to survive; they are all professionals. I have interviewed them all, they are my family. Aliye Ummanel is the dramaturg of the theatre, she is the wife of Kudret Özersay. You can read their stories in my books.
