İlhan Tarus’un Suavi Efendi Oyunu Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Abstract

İlhan Tarus (1907–1967) is among the writers who, by virtue of the period in which he lived, bore witness to numerous historical moments of rupture. Reflecting his identity as a jurist in his works, Tarus wrote from a social realist perspective. His play Suavi Efendi, written in 1962, centers on the Çırağan Raid. Focusing on a period of approximately three days, the play begins in Üsküdar, Istanbul on 20 May 1878 and concludes at Çırağan Palace. The main characters of the play are (Ali) Suavi Efendi and Yedisekiz Hasan Pasha, and the entire dramatic structure is shaped around these two figures. In addition to the individuals directly involved in the raid, the play features Yedisekiz Hasan Pasha and Prince Murad, while also attempting to present a panorama of the religious figures, intellectuals, and bureaucratic milieu of the Abdülhamid era. Alongside this, the play addresses themes of Ottoman modernization and intellectual identity and is written using the documentary theatre technique.

The author’s prioritization of factual accuracy grants Suavi Efendi the character of a documentary play, yet simultaneously weakens it in literary terms. The play progresses almost exclusively through dialogue and remains highly static. For this reason, Suavi Efendi is a text more suitable for reading than for stage performance. Finally, although the play reflects the textual sensibility, observational structure, and perspective of the 1950s and 1960s, it remains comparatively weak—particularly in terms of narrative construction—when measured against other theatrical works written in the 1960s.

Keywords: İlhan Tarus, Suavi Efendi, Documentary Theatre, Ali Suavi, Ottoman Modernization, Turkish Theatre