After a two-decade break from the theatre stage, Timuçin Esen is making his long-awaited return, and he is not coming back quietly. The acclaimed Turkish actor will share the stage with Funda Eryiğit in Değişim / Dönüşüm, a dramatic production directed by internationally recognised German theatre director Thomas Ostermeier.
The production marks an important moment for Turkish theatre. It is also Ostermeier’s first theatre direction in Türkiye, bringing one of Europe’s most respected contemporary theatre figures together with two prominent Turkish performers.
The play will premiere on 3 November at Zorlu PSM in Istanbul.
Timuçin Esen and Funda Eryiğit Take on 22 Characters
Written by Maja Zade and adapted into Turkish through Timuçin Esen’s translation, Değişim / Dönüşüm places Esen and Funda Eryiğit at the centre of a story filled with personal conflict, hidden truths and difficult choices.
The unusual part is the scale of their performances.
Although the story revolves around two central figures, Mine and Tarık, Esen and Eryiğit will portray a total of 22 different characters. The demanding setup requires both actors to move between identities while maintaining the emotional thread of the main story.
For theatre audiences, the production brings together performance, transformation, and storytelling in a powerful way.
A Story About Love, Power and Secrets
At the heart of Değişim / Dönüşüm is a married couple whose apparently successful lives begin to unravel when secrets from their past emerge.
Mine is a successful politician in the middle of an election campaign. Tarık, her husband, has left his career as a lawyer and started working as a teacher. At the same time, he is struggling with an addiction rooted in his past.
What begins as an ordinary day gradually becomes something far more complicated.
As their hidden truths emerge, the couple must confront difficult questions about their marriage, careers, and the principles they claim to uphold. Their private relationship becomes inseparable from the wider pressures surrounding ambition, public image and personal responsibility.
That tension gives the production its central question:
Can a person truly change?
Thomas Ostermeier Brings His Earlier Production to Türkiye
Ostermeier is preparing to direct the Turkish production after first staging the play under the title Changes at Schaubühne Berlin in 2004.
The new Turkish version brings that theatrical history into a different cultural setting while retaining the story’s focus on transformation, compromise and personal responsibility.
Rehearsals began in July at Inspera Bodrum before continuing in Istanbul. The production is being jointly presented by Tatlı Ekşi Tiyatro, PMPEX and Antitez Sahne Sanatları.
Ostermeier’s involvement is particularly notable because this production represents his first time directing a theatre play in Türkiye.
Why the Play Goes Beyond a Marriage Story
While Mine and Tarık’s relationship provides the emotional centre, Değişim / Dönüşüm reaches into broader questions about modern life.
How much can a person compromise without losing their identity? Where does ambition become self-destruction? Can success coexist with personal integrity? And when circumstances change, is it possible to leave an old version of yourself behind?
The play explores these ideas through love, loyalty, addiction, power and conscience.
Rather than presenting change as a simple personal decision, the story examines what happens when private choices collide with public expectations.
Humour and tension are also woven into the dramatic structure, giving the production a tone that can move between uncomfortable confrontation and lighter moments.
A Significant Return for Timuçin Esen
For Timuçin Esen, the production carries an additional significance. After around 20 years away from theatre, his return places him in a demanding two-hander alongside Funda Eryiğit, with both actors responsible for a remarkably large range of characters.
Eryiğit’s participation adds another strong performance element to the production. Together, the pair must carry a story that shifts between marriage, politics, personal history and moral conflict.
With its unusual multi-character structure and Ostermeier’s international theatre background, Değişim / Dönüşüm is shaping up as one of the notable Turkish theatre events of the season.
The first major date is already set: 3 November at Zorlu PSM, Istanbul.
For audiences interested in Turkish theatre, Timuçin Esen’s stage return, Funda Eryiğit’s latest performance and Thomas Ostermeier’s first Turkish theatre direction make this production one to watch.
Source
- Birsen Altuntaş
- Zorlu PSM
- Schaubühne Berlin
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