Tiyatroadam Presents New Play 'Frank V' In Gala Performance

Turkish film and TV director-scriptwriter Serdar Akar's İstanbul-based theater company Tiyatroadam presented “5. Frank,” its 2014-2015 Turkish adaptation of the 20th century play “Frank der Fünfte: Oper einer Privatbank” (Frank the Fifth), in a gala performance this week at the Ortaköy Afife Jale Theater.

Numerous well-known figures from İstanbul's media and art circles, particularly fellow thespians, were among hundreds of guests filling the Afife Jale Theater for the gala on Tuesday evening. Actresses Damla Sönmez and Selen Uçer, actor Serdar Orçin and author and TV programmer Yekta Kopan were among the audience that gave the team on the stage and behind the production a standing ovation at the end of the performance.

Written in 1959 by Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt, whose plays are often billed as controversial pieces linked to the theater of the absurd, “Frank V” is a grotesque musical comedy that tells the story of a group of corrupt bankers who are actually gangsters and their dual lives.

The play's text, translated into Turkish back in the 1970s by late French-language teacher and translator Tahsin Saraç, is accompanied by live music made on the stage, often adding to the farce on the stage. Led by young actor-director Fatih Koyunoğlu, a 12-member cast performs both the characters on the stage as well as the score to “Frank V,” which stands as yet another example of Tiyatroadam's choice of hard-hitting plays for its repertoire, which also includes a multiple award-winning production of the well-known Bertolt Brecht play “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” for the 2013-2014 season.

“Frank V” continues performances throughout the 2014-2015 season at the Afife Jale Theater in the Ortaköy Cultural Center. The play will also travel to other theaters across İstanbul in the coming months.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)