Gelin – Canal Cafe Theatre
Güle güle gidin. Gelin is as easy going a comedy as they come. Adapted from Ibrahim Şinasi’s Şair Evlenmesi, Estelle Warner’s contemporary spin on a Turkish classic is as comforting as a cup of çay.
Both English and Turkish in its writing and its casting, this play is also hybrid in its historicity. Reimagined from the 1860 original, it takes modern London as its setting and English as its primary language yet remains rooted in Turkish tradition even as it extends tendrils into thorny modern subjects such as giving SHEIN-branded gifts or pairing pickles with Nutella.
The Canal Café Theatre is charmingly intimate, but this story is a little too thin to fill out a full flavour profile. As afraid to take up space as its reluctantly centralised heroine Aylin (Gunes Soysal), the play ...