From Disbelonging to Public Agency: Theatre As a Space for New Political Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey

From Disbelonging to Public Agency: Theatre as a Space for New Political Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey

This paper investigates the intersection of disbelonging and public agency through alternative theatre practices in Turkey, particularly following the 2013 Gezi Park movement. Drawing on empirical fieldwork conducted for my doctoral research, which includes semi-structured interviews and participant observation with independent theatres in Istanbul from 2019 to 2023, this study explores how theatre serves as a space for collective action, where shared feelings of disbelonging transform into drivers for public engagement.

Focusing on two women playwrights and directors, chosen from the fieldwork, the paper examines how disbelonging—understood as exclusion from dominant norms—has been reappropriated by these artists to cultivate new forms of belonging. Their productions challenge growing authoritarianism and rapid urban transformation in Istanbul by using theatre as a means to critique power structures and develop horizontal relationships within communities.

The study highlights how these artists use theatre to engage in a form of public agency that creates alternative political imaginaries, offering spaces where new social bonds and collective identities can emerge. As a political and performative public space, alternative theatre contributes to reshaping civic participation and fostering communal experiences that challenge established norms.

Through an analysis of contemporary theatre in Istanbul, this paper argues that the collaborative nature of alternative theatre allows for the formation of new pathways for political expression, offering audiences and performers opportunities to co-create spaces of resistance and reimagined futures.