Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theaters is bringing Dennis Kelly’s play “Orphans,” directed by Ogeday Erkut, to the audience. The play will have its premiere on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at 8:00 PM at the Üsküdar Kerem Yılmazer Stage.

About the Play:

Dennis Kelly, known for his critical approach to social life in contemporary British theater, shows how the dreams of a couple trying to build a happy family life, despite the polluted and dangerous world outside, can be turned upside down in a single night. The family is drawn into a criminal incident by the woman’s brother. As the net tightens, the dark sides of human nature begin to emerge; all individual values and family ties unravel. The boundaries of morality, conscience, loyalty, and good and evil are questioned around a striking plot.

This play, prepared by our young actors within the scope of “Internal Productions” for Youth Days, was added to our repertoire for the 2025 season.

This is the Story of Not Only an Individual Trauma, But Also the Darkness Suppressed by Society Rising to the Surface

The play’s director, Ogeday Erkut, describes “Orphans” as follows:

“The couple, Dany and Helen, who are celebrating the excitement of their soon-to-be-born baby, are suddenly pulled into an indescribable, traumatic night by Helen’s brother Liam, who enters covered in blood, and the dark secrets he drags along.

Let me summarize this situation and the discomfort it creates with this line from the character Liam, which I really like:

‘You’ve built a world here… A beautiful world. And it’s as if I’ve taken a dead cat and put it inside that world. Look, I said, ‘a fucking dead cat.’ But cats die in the world, Dany. Cats die, Hels.’

We all try to build a sheltered world where we can stay away from the ‘dead cats’ outside, where we don’t have to see them. The play ‘Orphans’ tells us exactly how these safe and ‘clean’ lives of ours can be turned upside down, how fragile that world is, in a harsh but realistic language.

The ‘dead cat’ metaphor in the play is not limited to the traumas experienced by the characters; it also points to the social realities that surround us, which we don’t want to see and which grow as we ignore them. We all build small, comfortable worlds for ourselves in some way; we often try to keep the injustices, poverty, violence, and discrimination happening outside ‘outside of our world.’ But when the truth knocks on the door and enters, just as Liam reveals it, that world we thought was safe can easily be destroyed. ‘Orphans’ shakes the audience at precisely this point: Because this play is the story of not only an individual trauma but also the darkness suppressed by society rising to the surface.

With the hope that you never have to see the ‘dead cat’ outside, best regards.”

The play features set design by Cihan Aşar and Batuhan Bozcaada, costume design by Zuhal Soy, sound effect design by Özgür Yaşar İşler and Gökhan Balsoy, lighting design by Osman Aktan and Ali Özkır, supervision by Ali Gökmen Altuğ, and photography by Ahmet Çelikbaş. The cast includes Ersin Bağcıoğlu, İpek Uğuz, and Ogeday Erkut.

The play will be staged at the Üsküdar Kerem Yılmazer Stage from October 29th to November 1st and November 5th to 8th, 2025, and at the Beylikdüzü Rasim Öztekin Stage on November 29th, 2025.