The Jungle

By: Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson
Translator: Ferdi Çetin
Directed by: Ammar Haj Ahmad
Project Advisor: Burak Safa Çalış
Genre: Play Reading & Interview

“The Jungle” is an internationally acclaimed play born from the experiences of Joe and Joe, the founders of the Good Chance Theater. In addition, the character of Amal in the play inspired a cross-border project called “The Walk”, which was developed based on the Good Chance Theater’s play.

The duo, who are the General Artistic Directors of Good Chance, met many people while volunteering in a dome tent for migrants in Calais and held workshops and performances for 7 months with thousands of people passing through the original Good Chance Dome tent. They then wrote a play based on this, The Jungle, which broke box office records in the UK and the US. Since 2017, it has engaged and communicated on the topic with over 150,000 audiences and raised more than £220,000 for organizations supporting the possibility of coexistence.

The Jungle Project will start with a workshop on “devised theatre” by Ammar Haj Ahmad at Kadir Has University. More than 20 artists, including students of Kadir Has University Theater and professional actors of immigrant and Turkish origin, will participate in the workshops. With an emphasis on reaching out to both Turkish and immigrant communities in Istanbul, the workshop will be accessible and free of charge.

In addition to taking part in the New Text Theater Festival as a reading, the play’s creators are also coming to Istanbul. Both Good Chance and GalataPerform aim to use this opportunity to build bridges between the Turkish and migrant communities in Istanbul, on and off stage, as well as between artists and audiences in Turkey and the UK. After the workshop, rehearsals will begin with the actors selected for the play reading and the play reading of “The Jungle” will meet the audience at DasDas Open Stage.

The play reading will be followed by an audience Q&A with the play’s director and lead actor Ammar Haj Ahmad, who has directed over 500 performances of the play, and Naomi Webb, the theater’s executive director, and Joe Robertson, co-writer of “The Jungle” and one of Good Chance’s artistic directors.The play reading will also be available to watch digitally.

Venue: Dasdas
Date: Wednesday, November 29th, 20:00
Price: 150 TL (Tickets mobilet.com)

*The Jungle Project is supported by the British Council’s Creative Collaborations Grant Program.