AYSE KALMAZ // FREMD (YABANCI)

In the organizer's words:

FREMD / YABANCI is an intense, poetic piece of theater that follows two women in a waiting room between reality and dream. In the midst of bureaucratic coldness and digital numbers, Shari and Sinem wait to finally be chosen. Their dialogues are an interplay of profound reflection, absurd humor and emotional outbursts, while the stage spins in ever-changing, symbolic images and presents different flip sides of one and the same reality.

Between laughter and tears, rituals and memories, they explore existential questions of belonging and intimacy. They navigate their deep feelings of alienation and identity as they come closer together in absurd, humorous and often touching moments.

Visually stunning and poetically told, the piece reflects on what it is like to be a stranger - in society, in your own skin and in your relationship with others. The work takes the approach of locating the causes of foreignness in so-called "defects" in the filter systems of our perception, as a result of collective, transgenerational traumas. It is partly based on the studies of Dr. Gabor Mate and Dr. Liya Yu, among others, who have investigated the connection between the consequences of traumatic experiences that are passed on to subsequent generations with epigenetic markings.