Ayşe Bayramoğlu’s Plays That Make Visible Our Desire to Be Visible: Genuine Gala and White Lies
Elif AydınIn the axis of a new mass viewing experience and the desire to be visible, which is the product of late globalization and the media, this study examines Ayşe Bayramoğlu’s Hakiki Gala and Beyaz Yalanlar, which have contributed to the post-2000 theater literature. In both plays, there are characters who desire to be a part of a “reality show” world to make it happen, and, simultaneously, this effort at being visible is revealed in each play. This study inversigates also how the futile efforts of these characters who envy lives more “real” and visible than theirs might affect the viewing experience of people and the theater audience, who, just like these characters, cannot feel authentic enough under any circumstances.
Görünür Olma Arzumuzu Görünür Kılan Ayşe Bayramoğlu Oyunları: Hakiki Gala ve Beyaz Yalanlar
Elif AydınBu çalışma, 2000 sonrası tiyatro yazınımıza katkı sunan Ayşe Bayramoğlu’nun Hakiki Gala ve Beyaz Yalanlar oyunlarını, geç küreselleşme ve medyanın ürünü olan yeni bir kitlesel seyir deneyimi ve görünür olma arzusu ekseninde incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Her iki oyunda da “reality show” dünyasının bir parçası olma arzusu taşıyan ve bunu gerçekleştirmeye çalışan karakterlerin bulunduğu ve aynı zamanda bu görünür olma çabasının oyun içerisinde bir noktada ifşa edildiği görülmektedir. Gerçek hayatlarından daha “sahici” ve göz önünde olan hayatlara imrenen bu karakterlerin çabalarının tiyatro sahnesinde boşa düşmesinin, tıpkı bu karakterler gibi kendilerini hiçbir durumda yeterince özgün hissedemeyen çağımız insanı ve tiyatro seyircisinin seyir deneyimine nasıl bir etkisi olabileceği de çalışmanın tartışma zeminini oluşturmaktadır.
It is a fact that the media, whose roots can be traced to liberal policies wherein the separation of private and public spheres of the 1980s was blurred, is a medium where the increasing desire for visibility is pumped the most. It was during these years that the intimate and private stories were displaced, and the boundary between fiction and reality gradually faded. Our acquaintance with competition-game genres of reality TV began during the 2000s, when reality TV programs were prepared with a journalistic approach derived from page-three news in the reality show format that was introduced by private television channels. Such programs started being broadcasted in the 1990s. As a result of late globalization and neoliberal policies, individuals feel inadequate and will disappear unless they make themselves visible and constantly put themselves in the circulation of the media and the market as a commodity. Therefore, it can be said that we are fed and guided by the motto, “I am visible, therefore, I am.”
The two plays that Ayşe Bayramoğlu wrote in 2010 and in 2012 that will be examined in this article concern this search for authenticity of ordinary people. Hakiki Gala (Genuine Gala) is about two characters who create a life story for themselves from the page-three news and use a novelist (fictional character of Ayşe Bayramoğlu herself) to become famous. However, after narrating their tragic stories and how they met, they admit that they are actually making use of the audience for their fame. Specifically, these two characters adapted their back stories from various kinds of page-three news and always desired to be visible and authentic like the people on the news. In contrast, Beyaz Yalanlar (White Lies), carries a reality show competition named “White Lies” to the stage along with its backstage preparations. The play witnesses how contestants try to make their ordinary lives special and how they are deceived by their neighbors which they use for the reward at the end of the competition (and the play itself). Their neighbors whom they consider as having happy lives and their “real” life, as they later admitted, are not really appealing; however, they choose to deceive themselves and others with white lies. Both texts have a structure that reveals this search for authenticity and the effort to be visible.
In addition to the examples of plays wherein the dominant discourse is reproduced on the theater stage, independent theater groups also shed light on these “ordinary lives” and try to find a space to express themselves on stage. In theater, which considered as having an important place in terms of breaking the conventional watching habits of today’s audience as well as the illusion created by television, Bayramoğlu’s disclosure strategy has a valuable place and can make important contributions to the post-2000 theater literature in Turkey. While Hakiki Gala focuses on the narrator persona that today’s audience can regard as charismatic, in Beyaz Yalanlar, the imaginary fourth wall of the theater stage is transformed into a solid wall -just like a television screen- by means of a curtain. In other words, although these two plays are formulated around the same theme, they follow two different strategies in terms of staging the world of reality shows. Nonetheless, they have a common strategy in revealing our effort to be visible and our search for authenticity.
In our 2000s theatrical climate, where performative narratives are widespread, Ayşe Bayramoğlu’s Hakiki Gala and Beyaz Yalanlar may have a special place in terms of narration and staging. When examined these two play together, how a similar problem can be presented to the audience differently can be seen more clearly.
