The City of Oblivion

“How did we end up so alone? With all these neighbors, all these friends, and in our homeland, where we’ve lived our whole lives—how did we end up so alone?”

Three different women from three different tragic periods in Turkish history. Muzaffer, a student of Manoli; Leman, a chemist prone to suicidal thoughts; and Medih, a modest seamstress. The stories of these three women, who ran small businesses in Beyoğlu and its surroundings, intersect through their relationships with Mariam Shahinyan—Turkey’s first female studio photographer, who, like them, was also a small business owner.
Shaped by the historical eras in which they lived—eras that defined their destinies and personalities— — sometimes struggle with the challenges of belonging to a minority, sometimes try to find their place in a male-dominated world, and sometimes simply long for love. The play, in which we bear witness to the story of each heroine’s alienation, offers a multifaceted perspective on the concept of “the other,” while also humorously exploring what it means to be a woman in different eras of Turkish history. The dynamic narrative world created on stage is accompanied by a photographic world generated by artificial intelligence, which complements this story.