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Karagöz is a Turkish shadow theatre which dates back to Ottoman period. This traditional performance art had been a major entertainment for Turks especially during Ramadan, festivals and social events.
Shadow theatre is an art performed by a single artist in which shadows of two dimensional figures are reflected to a transparent texture or curtain by using backlight. The artist moves the puppets, which are mostly made up of semi-transparent camel skin, by the help of sticks attached to them. He adapts his voice and accent according to the character traits of the figures. The play is not based on a written text, but usually developes within certain rules. The mentioned art is believed to be transmitted to Turkish culture through Egypt in 16th century.
In Karagöz play, leading roles are “Karagöz” and “Hacivat”. These two roles are quite opposite to each other and the comedy in the play stems from their contrasting characters. Karagöz is the straightforward, rude and less educated character who symbolizes public opinion and common sense, whereas Hacivat is the clever, educated, slightly sneaky and smooth-tongued character who is from upper-class. In addition to the main characters, some other stereotype roles that represent people in Istanbul’s neighborhoods, from different ethnical backgrounds could also be seen in the play. These could be: imam, dancer, clown, neighbors, dancers, servants, ladies, mythological creatures, madman, deafman and so on... The play consists of four main parts: Introduction, Dialogue, The Main Play and The end. The puppets are manipulated by one lead artist, the Hayali, who may have one or more apprentice-assistants who are learning the craft by helping to create the tasvirs and accompanying the action with music.
Karagöz play, which has been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, had been the most favourite performance art of Turks after 17th century. The play had also been a social unifier as it gave social messages by involving current matters and problems of the public. Today, although shadow theatre and Karagöz play is not as popular as it was in the past, there are still some artists carrying on this traditional play to transfer it to the next generations.
References
Turan, S. (2014) History of Turkish Culture: From Turkish Culture to Culture of Turkey and Universalism (7th ed.) Ankara: Bilgi
UNESCO (2019) Karagöz [online] Available from: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/karagoz-00180 (Accessed: 05 September 2019)
And, M. (2014) History of Turkish Theathre (7th ed.) İstanbul: Iletisim
İstanbul Karagöz Puppet Foundation (2019) History of Karagöz [online] Available from: http://www.karagoz.org.tr/tr/karagoz-blog/karagoz-tarihcesi (Accessed: 05 September 2019
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Go Turkey Tourism Portal (2019) Karagoz and Hacıvat Shadow Theatre Karagöz [online] Available from: https://www.goturkeytourism.com/things-to-do/karagoz-hacivat-shadow-theatre-unesco-turkey.html (Accessed: 05 September 2019)
World Encyclopaedia of Puppetry Arts (2019) Karagöz [online] Available from: https://wepa.unima.org/en/karagoz/ (Accessed: 05 September 2019)
Sansal, B. (2019) Karagöz and Hacivat, a Turkish shadow play [online] Available from: http://www.allaboutturkey.com/karagoz.htm (Accessed: 05 September 2019)