Events | Zorlu Performing Arts Center

The event is performed in Turkish. It is not suitable for audiences who do not speak Turkish.

The near future… We are in a world struck by the climate crisis! Something strange has happened, almost like the apocalypse—but not quite! A nomadic community called the Parasites has emerged, unwanted by every country. A boy named Diyar! He is one of the storytellers of this new society. Every evening, he gathers the Parasites around the fire and tells them a story with his darbuka, taking them back to the first days of the apocalypse.

A story of betrayal!

The early days of the climate crisis! We are in Istanbul! A major uprising alongside growing hunger and famine! A conservative movement called İzan, turning the crisis into an opportunity! And Leylâ, a mysteriously “strange” girl who changes the course of Diyar’s entire story!

In a time of great fires, disease, migration, bloodshed, hunger, and thirst, one question becomes more important than all others: As the world we know slips away from us, whose hand will we hold, and alongside whom will we walk?

“That night, the first bombs exploded! The ground shook beneath our feet! We went outside! The sky had turned red like hell! Everything was blazing! Maybe they had bombed Istanbul in thirty different places at once!

‘They’re coming,’ Leyla said.

There was something so strange in her voice… Like fear, but not quite…

‘Who’s coming?’ I asked.

She didn’t say a word… She didn’t even turn around…

But I looked! The whole fire was reflected on her face! Her black hair was glowing crimson! The fire spun in her pupils like a whirlpool!

I forgot about the fire and everything else. Because love! Love is being able to turn and look at just one person while entire cities are burning!”