Shakespeare and Haldun Taner

Haldun Taner is one of the pioneers of Turkish epic theatre. He composes different traditions from different periods of theatre and different types of it and Turkish culture. His plays are full of references to classical theatre, especially to the most famous plays of Shakespeare such as “Hamlet”. He generally uses Shakespeare plays to create a metafictional atmosphere in his plays, usually another play acted by the actors in the original play. For example, in one of his plays “ Vatan Kurtaran Saban” which is the first cabaret in Turkish theatre, Taner uses ” Hamlet” to convey his critical to the approach to the art which is composed by clichés and classic interpretations of famous plays. He especially uses the most common misunderstood scene of “Hamlet”, the skull scene and “to be or not to be” soliliquy. Also, again in the same play, Taner uses another famous play of Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet”, and uses their names in order to critisize the approach of Turkish cinema in that years, which is composed of figures as “Romeo” and “Juliet” used over and over. Also, we can see the “messengers” in the tragedies of Shakespeare in Taner’s as a tool to reflect the story in the background.