TO PERFORM, OR NOT TO PERFORM? A queer reading of feminist theatre performances in Istanbul

Abstract

Feminist theatre, I opine, is a tremendously valuable tool that could help individuals to gaze politically at their own lives. This thesis is compiled by an exploratory research into the theatrical stage of Istanbul aiming to analyse three plays with a queer lens as means to uncover the feminist politics that transforms the normative norms of both the theatre and the society. The main analysis of this thesis proposes to answer whether the Istanbulian alternative theatre as a practice features a feminist political stance; if so, how it helps to resist and battle the patriarchal discourses of the modern art-unfriendly and authoritarian Sunni Islamist JDP government; how text, space, and materiality distort the normative constructions of culture and society; and lastly, if any alternative temporalities such as transgender and/or non-hetero agency are constructed via it. The methodology of this research evolves around feminist theory, queer theory, governmentality, and materialism, supported by an exploratory field research of three feminist theatre performances in Istanbul during the months of January and February 2020. Descriptive fieldnotes while attending the performances and queer reading method to analyse the plays, are the main two research methods. Additionally, close reading and a semi structured interview are adopted to make a back and forth scalar reading of characters, materiality, and text with the feminist politics of the stage. I conclude that through their product the cultural producers succeed to subvert the norms around theatre and society and with their art an inclusive space is built where oppositional consciousness and practices take place.