Mesut Arslan’s approach to Nachtelijk Symposium (Nocturnal Symposium), a 1994 play by Eric De Volder, is very special. De Volder describes the Meiresonnes, who are anything but a model family. After years of sweeping everything under the carpet, things start to emerge. Three sons and a mother play out a dramatic sparring match around the ‘family business’ and ‘him upstairs, our dad.’
 
Mesut places the actors and the text in artist Lawrence Malstaf’s installation of spinning tops. The audience is gathered around an open arena in which not only the tops, but also the characters, start revolving around each other. In this way the director sets the inner identity of a family and the surrounding audience in motion. ‘I do not opt for a classic characterisation of the characters and traditional theatre forms, but for the physical externalisation of what is happening inside the person, and playing with perceptions. The typical Flemish ‘reserve’ produces a circle of atypical emotionality, impotence, pain and betrayal,’ says Mesut Arslan.

Turkish version at the 22nd Istanbul Tiyatro Festivali on 24, 25, 26, 27 November 2018

concept and direction Mesut Arslan author Eric De Volder tops and arena Lawrence Malstaf dramaturgy Ata Unal scenografie Lawrence Malstaf & Meryem Bayram with Guven Kirac, Derya Alabora, Serhat Kilic, Mert Firat, Ersin Umut Guler, Yaşar Bayram Gül, Pervin Bagdat  light Jan Maertens music and music advise Eric Thielemans sound Stijn Demeulenaere costumes Johanna Trudzinski assistant director Koray Dogan scenography and costumes assistant Defne Parman production manager Emre Can Sancar

production Zorlu PSM coproduction Istanbul Tyatro Festvali, DasDas