The Homeland, or Silistra

The director of the production is Nevena Miteva, the set and costume designer is Nikolay Ninov, and the composer is Georgi Garchov.

Choreography: Stefan Stanchev

Consultants: Valentin Petkov and Vladimir Bryazov

The cast includes Simona Todorova, Aleksandar Pavlov, Stanislav Georgiev, Elena Keshisheva, Miroslav Petrov, Stefan Stanchev, Nedyalko Nedelchev, Deyan Todorov, Yuliyan Rusev, and Iliyan Iliev.

For Namık Kemal, theatre is very important as a means of reaching audiences directly. In the play The Homeland, or Silistra, he seeks to instill in people the idea of and love for the homeland by setting this love against all kinds of emotions, so that ultimately it may prevail over them all.

During the years of the Crimean War, the new love affair between Zekiye Hanım and İslam Bey takes an unexpected turn when İslam Bey goes to the front, while Zekiye, disguised as a soldier, follows him and joins in the defense of Silistra. Thus, events unfold on the battlefield in which love, patriotism, and the idea of nation become intertwined.

Namık Kemal was an Ottoman democrat, writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist. He was born in Tekirdağ on December 21, 1840. In his youth, Kemal traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire, staying in Constantinople, Kars, and Sofia, and studied a range of subjects, including poetry. After joining the Young Ottomans in 1862, Kemal wrote extensively on political, administrative, social, and foreign-policy reforms. As a result of his criticism of the government, Namık Kemal was expelled from the Ottoman Empire in 1867 and fled to Paris.

In 1869 or 1870, Kemal was allowed to return to Constantinople, and during this period he wrote his most significant and influential work—the play The Homeland, or Silistra. He died on December 2, 1888, at the age of 47.

The Homeland, or Silistra was first performed on April 1, 1873. The work was translated into Russian and German during the author’s lifetime and was later published in many languages. The title The Homeland, or Silistra associates the homeland with Silistra. In other words, the homeland is Silistra. The defense of Silistra is the defense of the homeland.

For adults