Theatre
The Wedding of a Poet
Şair Evlenmesi
Ibrahim Shinasi · 1860
Synopsis
Müştak Bey, a poor and educated poet, loves Kumru Hanım and is granted her hand in an arranged marriage. On the wedding day, the bride presented to him is her elder sister, Sakine Hanım, who has been substituted for the younger. He protests. According to the Humanities Institute, the neighbourhood imam, Ebüllaklaka, backed by the night watchman Batak Ese and the sweeper Atak Köse, presses him to accept, while his friend Hikmet Efendi, who has seen through the scheme, looks for a way to get him out of trouble.
Context
Conceived in 1859 in two acts, the play was reduced to a single act to appear as a serial in 1860 in the paper Tercüman-ı Ahvâl, which the author edited; according to turkedebiyati.org, it was not staged until 1908. It is seen as the first widely recognised Ottoman play on the model of European theatre; the Humanities Institute sees in it a comedy of manners that mocks arranged marriage and the credulity of those who follow an authority. Edward Allworth translated it into English in 1981.
Who it is for
A short one-act comedy, written in Ottoman Turkish, translated into English but not into French.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first Turkish play on a Western model, although Metin And studied earlier texts.
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