Abstract:

Like many great Turks, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as well as his life spent constantly struggling has been a subject matter of theatrical plays. In plays aimed at conveying Turkish National Struggle for Independence and the Republican period, Atatürk’s administrative and spiritual powers governing this period are usually mentioned indirectly. And, the theatre plays showing Atatürk as a direct character aim to convey his private and political life as well as his world view. In the history of Turkish theatre, such plays are relatively few. In the plays written when Ataturk was alive, there seems to be timidity to represent Ataturk on the stage. The plays which left a mark on the years following the proclamation of the Republic are ‘Revolution Performances’ showing similar features as if they are the works of a single pen. As these one-dimensional plays written to teach the official truth to the audience rather than make them think, reflect Atatürk by idealizing as an epic hero, they are unsuccessful plays which failed to realize their functions. However, after the 1960s, with the development of the sense of ‘History’ and by getting over the time, ‘Ataturk’ began to get on the stage as a character. And, the epic style in the plays on Atatürk was slowly replaced by a realist style. In the Turkish theater plays, this realist approach that has come into prominence in the perception of people and events has not matured and completed, yet.

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