The Rojava Theatre Commune (linked to Tev Çand), Hilala Zerin (the Women’s Cultural Movement) and Şanoya Çiya (Mountain Theatre) are presenting three different plays to mark three different anniversaries: the sacrifice of martyr Yekta Herekol, World Theatre Day and the 100th anniversary of the death of Dario Fo, the great Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.
ANF talked with Ekîn Ronî, a member of Şanoya Çiya.
Who was martyr Yekta Herekol?
On 27 March 2004, artist Martyr Yekta Herekol (Erdoğan Kahraman) set his body on fire in the marketplace square of the city of Aleppo. He did it to protest the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and the oppression of the peoples of Rojava.
Those who have known him speak about his comradeship, his interest in philosophy, and especially the way he questioned life in his scripts, criticizing things but also producing alternatives. He would distribute candy to children on his way to an action.
Martyr Yekta said: “Children represent the unity of peoples, and the unity of peoples is actually in the eyes of children.” To pay tribute to Martyr Yekta we organize a biennial theater festival, and when there is no festival, we organize a special commemoration of our friend.
What is the format for this year?
This year, we have united three different special days, World Theater Day (27 March), the anniversary of the martyrdom of comrade Yekta (also 27 March) and the 100th anniversary of Dario Fo (who was born on 24 March 1926). We have been in touch for some time with the Fondazione Fo Rame, which is organizing a year full of events, activities, and gatherings to celebrate the artistic, cultural, and social legacy of one of the most influential figures of contemporary theater and of our time.
We proposed to put on stage a play by Franca Rame and Dario Fo, Mamma Togni. We presented adapted the play to show an Italian and a Kurdish mother talking about their resistance. The director of the play is Sozdar Hevrîn, while the actresses are Hemalîn Ferman and Rûmet Beko. The Foundation inserted our play in “100 countries, 100 events” project.
We also sent a video message which was shown at the main event held in Milan on 24 March.
Mamma Togni was staged on 25 March in Derik and will be presented today (27) in Qamishlo, tomorrow in Kobane (not in the city, which is still impossible to reach) and on 29 in Hesekê.
What about the other two plays presented in this year’s edition?
We have two more plays. One in collaboration with Hilala Zerin, about the great Kurdish poet Cegerxwin, a theatrical musical.
The other play is called Yekta, and it is this year’s tribute to martyr Yekta. The play is written by Sîpan Serhed, who also directed it with Serhed Tendurek and features dance and music.
Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Dario Fo (1926–2016) and Franca Rame (1929–2013) were a legendary Italian theatrical, artistic, and political partnership. Fo, awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, and Rame, an actress and activist, created influential satirical plays, such as Mistero Buffo, targeting political corruption, power dynamics, and social issues, often utilizing Commedia dell’arte styles.
Mamma Togni
Mamma Togni is a dramatic monologue by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, set in Italy after the Second World War. It was performed in 1973. The monologue is a tribute to Giuseppina Modena (known as Mamma Togni), partisan gold medalist of the Italian Resistance, who during the Second World War lost her husband and 22-year-old son Lorenzo “Enzo” Togni, to whom a Garibaldi partisan brigade was named. On April 9, 1972, during the campaign for the 1972 Italian general election, the woman interrupted a meeting of the deputy Franco Servello, hitting him with a walking stick: for this reason the woman was arrested along with eight other people (including Rinaldo Nalli and Luigi Pastorelli, respectively municipal councillors of the Socialist party and Communist party) and tried, but eventually she was acquitted in 1976.
It was performed for the first time during the Liberation Day in the square in Pavia on 25 April 1972, played by Franca Rame, and then published by Einaudi in Guerra di popolo in Cile (1973). The monologue was performed by Franca Rame also on 31 December 1975 in Piazza del Duomo, Milan.
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