Don Quixote

The Somber Knight Don Quixote is a modern interpretation of Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote,adapted to traditional Turkish theatre. Played by Hacivat and his close friend who are icon characters of Anatolian shadow theatre, Shakespeares’ Hamlet attracted great attention. Having a nose in books and being a little intellectual, Hacivat brings a new text to his friend this time. The first modern novel of Western literature, whose main characters are as famous as themselves, with a history of 400 years… The story of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote…. Hacivat and Karagoz, the funniest duo of Eastern culture, decide to transform into western icons Sancho Panza and Don Quixote and an authentic, adventurous, and entertaining story emerges. Don Quixote dons his sword, shield and declares war on the windmills again.

The play, whose characters were designed using traditional Turkish Shadow Theatre techniques, brings together the 400-year-old text of Don Quixote with the 700-year-old shadow theatre for the first time. In the play, the characters in the Turkish theatre change costumes and are included in the novel of the famous author. The characters, which were designed using the original techniques of art in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list, were designed by embroidery of camel or buffalo skin, as it was centuries ago. A single artist plays all the characters painted with special paints throughout the play. The actor plays the puppets and changes his body and voice- giving life to different characters. The play, whose design process took about two years, is the product of collaborative work with artists from different disciplines, including writers, illustrators, and musicians.

The Somber Knight Don Quixote is designed and performed by Ayhan Hulagu, who attracted great attention with his plays in international festivals and brought Turkish shadow theatre to Broadway for the first time in its history.

For all ages. Running time: 60 minutes