Tato

The play contains some motives of Kafka’s Letter to his father, as the father in the play is abusive.

Father – a tyrant, head of the family, a dictator awakening fear and respect; father – a hopeless man who does not know how to fulfil his life’s role. The imposed role of patriarch does not allow him to show feelings and to be a nice, understanding dad. For him it would be the end of him as a father, they are the antithesis of being a strong man according to him. Showing feelings would be tantamount to admitting one’s weakness, becoming the object of jokes of other male friends and relatives. The army-like discipline allows fathers to mask hopelessness and fear.

Play starts with the following words: “Time of father has passed. Now we only have of mothers and nice fathers. Old fathers disappeared with the coming of new times.” But Pałyga’s play is about these old-fashioned fathers. By filling the play with single images, we receive the whole picture of family relations in the middle of which is the figure of the tyrant father. The play opens and closes with the memory of the funeral. Scene by scene we witness fascination, admiration, longing for the ever-absent father. When father asks his son at his deathbed why he was afraid of him, the son is unable to answer.

Written by: Artur Palyga
Directed by: Yeşim Özsoy
Dramaturgy: Ferdi Çetin
Costume Design: Esin Çınar
Light Design: Yüksel Aymaz
Movement Design: Tuğçe Tuna Ulugün
Music: Monika Bulanda
Photography: Alengirhane
Graphic Design: Ethem Onur Bilgiç

Performers
Erdem Kaynarca
Onur Gürçay
Özge Korkmaz
Ceren Demirel
Akant Çetin,
Serhat Gücüm
Barkın Sarp