Unser Deutschlandmärchen

Based on the novel by Dinçer Güçyeter, which received the Leipzig Book Fair Award in 2023, director Hakan Savaş Mican gives a voice to those who have long been ignored in Germany. In his stage adaptation of “Unser Deutschlandmärchen”, he finds precise theatre devices to render palpable the many layers of the relationship between a mother whose life is shaped largely by work and her arty son (played brilliantly by Sesede Terziyan und Taner Şahintürk), and to fathom both social and familial expectations. When words fail them in their search for identity, language and their own place in the world, the two are backed by the virtuoso band around Peer Neumann. Beyond all clichés, with plenty of humour and sensitivity, Mican and his ensemble lay out Fatma’s and Dinçer’s family story and challenge the conditions that have shaped their relationship.

Statement of the Jury

Did Fatma ever have a chance to dance, to float along in high heels, to enjoy sex? Or was her entire lifetime spent as a “silent wife, devoted mother, functioning factory worker”? Right at the start of the show, Dinçer grieves for the side of his mother that she could not live. Hakan Savaş Mican, who has repeatedly explored generational conflicts among Turkish migrants and their long-untold biographies, has adapted Dinçer Güçyeter’s auto-fictional debut novel, creating an equally sensitive and dignified mother-son-portrait for two exceptional actors: Sesede Terziyan as the mother who is perpetually humiliated and grows hard in her perseverance, and Taner Şahintürk as the son who subverts her expectations by becoming an artist. They both fill their characters with zest for life and ready wit, giving these two people who have stayed close in spite of all their estrangement a dry sense of humour and tear-wrenching ardency. The live band, led by Peer Neumann and cleverly integrated into the events on stage, contribute songs ranging from Sezen Aksu to Sisters of Mercy and help the characters to overcome their silence.

Tojuror Eva Behrendt’s video statement on “Unser Deutschlandmärchen” (in German)

ProgrammeBooklet (pdf, 1.5 MB)