2016, 70’

Following its premiere on 21 May 2016 at garajistanbul as part of the 20th Istanbul Theatre Festival, Old Child was performed on various stages during the 2016–2018 seasons.

The play was imagined and written drawing inspiration from the lives of several children who lost their lives in different contexts of violence and conflict: three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed ashore on the Aegean coast after his family’s attempt to flee Syria via Bodrum and reach Canada ended in tragedy; eight-year-old Jamal Salih I’lyan, one of eight children killed when a bomb struck a playground in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza; ten-year-old Cemile Çağırga, who was shot in front of her home during clashes in Cizre and whose body had to be kept in a freezer because of the curfew; and nine-year-old Veysel Deniz Atılgan, who died alongside his father in the bombing during the peace rally in Ankara.

Old Child is dedicated, through the stories of Aylan, Jamal, Cemile and Veysel, to all children who have lost their lives to war, violence and injustice in different parts of the world. In the play, they live out a utopia for all children — in other words, they live.