summarised by Alpay Ekler
Turkey developed fully-fledged, distinct
and original improvisatory comedy, very much
like the Italian commedia dell'arta. This is
called Ortaoyunu. In the Ottoman Empire, we
can assume Ortaoyunu in its final form to be
quite recent, dating only from the beginning of
the 19th century. Among the popular genres
that contributed to the flowering of Ortaoyunu
were the professional story-tellers, the shadow
theatre, puppetry, masked grotesque dancers,
jesters and clowns, and many others from the
great variety of traditional Turkish theatrical
entertainments. Prior to Ortaoyunu traces of
Turkish dramatic art are to be found in the
farces, impromptu productions, based on
humorous possibilities of rudimentary
situations, characters and costumes. Animal
mimicry played an important part and the Deer
was a principal character in these farces.1
Today farces of this sort can still be seen in
Anatolia, based on the mimicry of deer, camels
or other animals.
As time went on all these coarse and
crude farces, whether they were called Kol
Oyunu (Company play), or Meydan Oyunu
(Public square play) or even Taklit Oyunu
(mimicry play) were associated with the Orta
Oyunu. Before the arrival of European
influences, a raised platform was never used as
a stage by these performers.
An attempt has been made to trace
ortaoyunu to the ancient Greek mime via
Byzantium or the commedia dell'arte, there
having been a close relationship between the
Ottoman Empire and the Italian states. Some
scholars, however, are inclined to believe that
ortaoyunu is a" fairly new type of
entertainment, originating after 1790 as an
offspring of Karagoz. Other scholars believe
that ortaoyunu did not appear until even later.
This point of view may have been influenced
by the fact that the name ortaoyunu is a fairly
recent adoption. Previously the form was
known as kol oyunu (company play), meydan
oyunu (plays in the round), and taklit oyunu
(mimicry play). Ortaoyunu is first mentioned
in a festivity book by the poet Esat in 1834, and
in 1836 a different festivity book by Lebib
reports on two ortaoyunu companies whose
names were Zuhuri Kolu and Alt Aga Kolu.
The plays performed were The Raid on a
Neighborhood Disorderly House (Mahalle
Baskini), The Play of the Tailor (Terzi
Oyunu), The Play of the Public Scribe (Yazici
Oyunu), The Play of the Fountain ((^esme
Oyunu), The Play of the Barber (Barber
Oyunu) and The Play of the Fortress (Kale
Oyunu).
In the early days of orta oyunu, plays
were preceded by a diversion in which there
were twelve dancers and a clown called Tiryaki
(the opium addict). The latter wore a pointed
hat similar to a dunce's cap and carried a
clapper consisting of two flat pieces of wood
fastened together. (It was used to produce a
loud noise when someone was being "beaten").
His job was to make humorous gestures during
the dances, after which the play proper started.
In the ortaoyunu as eventually presented on the
"stage", mimicry, dance, and comic dialogue
evolved into a play, and the clowns were
transformed into actors.
The ortaoyunu "stage" consisted of an
open space around which the audience sat, the
women on a side obscured by a temporary
lattice. In rare instances, a low fence marked
the playing area. There was no curtain, and the
actors dressed and waited for their cues while
sitting among the members of the orchestra,
remaining visible to the audience during the
