Unofficial Roxelana – Barons Court Theatre
It is always exciting to encounter multilingual theatre in London, particularly in a city with such a complex mix of languages, histories and communities. Unofficial Roxelana, performed in Turkish with English surtitles, is an example of the kind of work that can bring a specific cultural history into a shared theatrical space without having to translate away its original language.
Written by Turkish playwright Özen Yula, the play tells the story of Hürrem Sultan, one of the most powerful women of the Ottoman Empire. Her journey from concubinage into the centre of the Ottoman court becomes a way of exploring power, gender, political ambition and the ways in which women's histories are remembered and retold. Rather than presenting Hürrem's story as a straightforward historical accoun...