By Heidi Trautmann

Theatre has a debt to pay towards society, that is what Yasar Ersoy, director of the Lefkosa Municipality Theatre, was saying to me when I interviewed him. To make good theatre and to invite good theatre groups into the country to give the audience the possibility to learn more about it.

It is the eighth festival this year and again they have invited good theatre companies to Cyprus: Ankara State Theatre, Istanbul State Theatre, Theatre Workshop, Dostlar Theatre, Istanbul City Theatre, Üsküp Türk Theatre and Kenter Theatre. Altogether 11 performances from Sep 2 until September 28, so there are still four performances to go.

I went to see the Istanbul City Theatre with a satirical comedy play on Romeo and Juliet written by Ephraim Kishon, a famous writer and playwright. He assumes that Romeo and Juliet have not died but got married. No romantic eidifeelings left but quarrel every day of their life. Shakespeare sees it from high above and decides to descend to earth to teach them a lesson. A most funny play with the actors Engin Alkan in two roles, also being the director of the theatre; Sevinc Erbulak in two roles, Caglar Corumlu and Murat Bavli. Inbetween the scenes the actors were giving a musical summary as ballad singers of what it was all about: about love! Very good actors who enjoyed what they were doing. I enjoyed it tremendously.

The house of the Atatürk Conference Centre at the Near East University was fully booked with over 800 guests, it has around 700 seats and all the steps in-between the rows were occupied by young people.

The stage design was perfect.

There are four more plays to see, on Sep 23, 25, 27 and 28.

It was a full success this year with many plays booked out from the very beginning of the festival. Congratulation to the Municipality Theatre as organizers of this event and our thanks to them.

Now that this year’s festival is nearing its end, the actors of our theatre are getting ready for their own work, rehearsals for the play of the coming season are set.