...and the sudden Encounter with Nature -

By Heidi Trautmann

“I have come here with my women friends and all our children to make them aware thatsomething else exists besides the internet world in their tablet…we are worried…” This said a young mother to me, a friend, when I met her at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Nicosia where the musical “Tabtab’in Beklenmedik Serüveni /The Unexpected Adventure of Tabtab” had its third performance. “All day long he is forgetting all about his surroundings”. I have known her boy for many years, a very intelligent child; it is that the outside sensory stimuli are not sufficient for him, and for all the children we see bent over their iphones and tablets, sucked into a prefabricated life.

The play is about just this, meeting the sorrow of this mother, a cooperation of the Naci Talat Vakif  and a group of young actors, in order to reach all children and their parents to open their eyes to the danger and influence of these electronic devices. Childhood should be the learning age to cope with the life that is ahead of them, they should lie flat on their tummy to watch the ants and bugs, should climb the trees to talk to birds, should learn about the wonders of nature instead of disappearing in an uncontrollable world of fantasy.

The boy Tabtab keeps a close relationship with his tablet and entertains regular conversations with the internet voice. One morning, on his way to school with his beloved tablet in his hand, conversing with it, he stumbles and falls into a deep underground world where he finds himself surrounded by trees, in the middle of a forest,  in the strange world of nature. He gets lost and his tablet does not answer. All of a sudden he encounters a crow which is caught in a net and which he frees and helps along to regain his flying capability. They talk and learn from each other.

The play was written and directed by Erdoğan Kavaz. The actors are Pınar Inandım (the internet voice), Fuat Zorali, Kurtuluş Altaylı, …and the crow which developed a life of its own.  Wonderful acting, dancing, singing and bringing to life a crow puppet, in a combination of various disciplines and techniques, a well succeeded experiment.  An important play. The same genre could be applied for our poor environment drowning in plastic….. just a wishful thinking of mine.

Poster: Yagmur Bayhanli
Puppet maker:  Asya Kazafanalı
Music and light and sound: Mehmet Atun ve Erdogan Kavaz
Special effects: Ceyda Alçıcıoğlu
Coordination and organisation: Rahme Kavaz
Editor: Gizem Kavaz
Technic: Suad Suicmez
Photos Barlas Sahinoglu
Naci Talat Vakfı Coordinator: Mehmet Aykut Incirli
Consultant: Prof. Dr. Biran Mertan ve Uzm. Seçil Besim

An amazing play, an amazing step to support education in a playful and artistic way. I hope that the play will tour the island and go beyond.

They are two more performances at the AKM in Nicosia, on March 10 and March 24. See the details on the poster.