Traditional Turkish Shadow Theatre -Karagoz ve Hacivat- is an ancient Turkish traditional art. It is built around the two characters who meet the audience in front of a curtain that shines with light; And the other characters who support them meet the audience with the most entertaining memories of Turkish culture; that have accumulated over centuries with reviving dolls behind the curtain of imagination.
So what is Traditional Turkish Shadow Theatre and who are Karagöz and Hacivat?
Traditional Turkish Shadow Theatre -Karagoz ve Hacivat- are a result of the accumulation of oral literature in the past from each culture; and the narration of social events through humor and satire.
Thanks to the popularity brought by the spread of Karagöz and Hacivat in many countries. But the first to find and exhibit them is unknown.
Firstly, the Turks discovered these two characters then many other cultures accept and adopt them nowadays. The shadow theatre was first played in the palace in the Archives of the Ottoman Empire; which contains 95 million different documents.
The novel that the shadow theatre was played for the first time; in this way that Sheikh Kochtari took out his turban and stretched it as a curtain; put lights behind it, and revived the characters of Karagoz and Hacivat.
Original harmony between two opposite personalities
Centuries of harmony between two opposite personalities Karagöz and Hacivet are two opposite personalities.
While portraying the character of Karagöz is loyal, frank, and a courageous person. But at the same time, he is nervous, uneducated, and married, as the character of Karagoz is a lying person, coward not brave, and calm, polite with people, Sly, witty, tortured and generally sad. We see that besides portraying the character of Karagöz as a person, he is also a pure character.
Karagöz, the uneducated, gives an answer to Hacivat, who knows all the subjects, adding a different meaning to every word he hears and understands.
Karagöz who has a unique meaning in every story; and whose words were obvious for everyone, always remains in a bad way.
In Traditional Turkish shadow theatre plays we always find Karagöz in a different character. For this reason, in many theatres the portrayal of the character of Hacivaz in these clothes is; “Goat Hurts”, “Naked Hurts”, “Women Hurts”, and “Hurts of the Butler”. Other characters on the curtain of imagination the two opposite characters who appeared centuries ago, people watched with pleasure and through their clever conversations, discovering the facts of life and taking lessons from them.
The curtain of imagination and the quality of characters
The curtain of imagination and the quality of characters starting with the formation of leather pieces. This process reveals personalities by dyeing the leather with root dyes of various colors.
Since we call the artist who performs the shadow theatre is “The Dreamer”; the characters come to life with the sound and movements of his dream hands.
Being a “Dreamer” in the traditional Turkish shadow theatre can only be achieved through the help of dreams.
After all the pieces are connected together using threads called Kishir; the characters are drawn with tile inks or root dyes, and so they are ready.
In ancient times the adults were the only ones enjoying the Turkish shadow theatre. Then it became one of the sources of social criticism among people in that period; through the inclusion of political satire.
Also, it was one of the first concrete steps to Westernize the Ottoman Empire ; then the organization monitored it on November 3, 1839, in The era of Sultan Abdul Majeed.