“This has been one of the most challenging and rewarding processes I’ve experienced, and I feel incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity.”
Rufus Norris doesn’t do things by halves. Stepping down after a decade running the National Theatre, a comfortable West End transfer or a lucrative Broadway residency seemed a likely conclusion. Instead, he is in Istanbul, directing Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman entirely in Turkish.
It is a sharp left turn to say the least. But to understand how a chunk of the British theatrical establishment decamped to the Bosphorus, you have to talk to the woman paying the bills. Filiz Ova, General Manager of the Zorlu Performing Arts Centre (Zorlu PAC), possesses crystal clarity about what this production actually represents. It is not just a prestigious anomaly; it is a calculated shift for Turkish theatre.
Moving Beyond the Tour Circuit
First you need to appreciate that the Zorlu PAC is, simply, massive. It handles roughly 1,200 events a year across seven distinct venues, processing nearly eight million ticket buyers over its thirteen seasons. Historically, operations of this scale outside London or New York survive by acting as receiving houses—parking massive touring productions for a few weeks and raking in the receipts. Ova is looking to dismantle that model.
“We position Zorlu PAC not merely as a presenting venue, but as a production hub that brings together diverse creative worlds,” she says, outlining a strategy that bypasses the touring circuit. “At Zorlu PAC, our approach to performing arts is grounded in a strong storytelling vision that brings together the universal and the local.”
“We position Zorlu PAC not merely as a presenting venue, but as a production hub that brings together diverse creative worlds…”
Hiring Norris is a tactical move. He brings a specific, demanding stagecraft, backed by a heavyweight design team. Es Devlin is handling the set. You do not hire Devlin—a designer who builds kinetic arenas for Beyoncé and U2—for polite domestic realism. Her involvement pretty much guarantees serious visual weight to counterweight the psychological suffocation of the Loman household.
Ova views this international cross-pollination as a hard commercial and artistic necessity. Nearly half of Zorlu PAC’s 1,200 annual events are now realised through international collaborations. “International collaborations are a key component of this approach,” she notes. “When different disciplines and cultural perspectives come together, both the scale and the impact of the work are significantly enhanced.”
Ergenç Returns to the Stage
The structural ambition of the British creatives is matched entirely by the casting. Halit Ergenç, an actor whose television dominance spans 190 countries, is playing Willy Loman. He hasn’t set foot on a theatre stage in 25 years.
Stepping into Loman’s doomed shoes might seem like quite an ask for a thesp who hasn’t faced the footlights for over two decades. For Ova, however, there was no alternative. The project was essentially built around him before a single rehearsal began.
“From the very early stages of the project, as we were reading Death of a Salesman, both my team and I naturally associated the character of Willy Loman with Halit Ergenç,” she recalls. “Even before it was brought to the stage, the character had already taken shape in our minds as Halit. The moment we decided to move forward with the production, he was the first person we approached.”
Ova knows exactly what his casting signals to the broader industry. “His return to the theatre with a role of this scale strongly reflects the seriousness and artistic ambition of the project.makeinterpretation of Willy Loman is one of the key elements that makes the production a thought-provoking, emotionally powerful, and lasting experience for the audience.”
Ergenç is flanked by Zerrin Tekindor as Linda Loman. Tekindor is a formidable stage talent, arriving fresh from a 350-performance run of the acclaimed show Dust. Ova describes Tekindor’s presence as equally defining, noting that “her extensive experience on the theatre stage, combined with her nuanced approach to character depth, plays a vital role in carrying the emotional layers of the piece. Her presence on stage establishes a balance that further strengthens the dramatic structure of the play.”
While the stars provide marquee value, Ova is quick to credit the ensemble—Fatih Artman, Kerem Arslanoğlu, Beyti Engin, and Kubilay Karslıoğlu—with providing essential qualities to the production. She believes the involvement of actors “each with a strong theatre background and deeply rooted in stage discipline is one of the key factors shaping the overall strength of the production. Each of these actors contributes to the rhythm and authenticity of the play through their theatrical instincts and command of the stage.”
Translating a Capitalist Autopsy
Transporting 1949 Brooklyn to contemporary Istanbul, of course, forces quite the cultural reckoning. Death of a Salesman is a forensic autopsy of capitalist failure, deeply tied to the myth of the self-made American man. Filtering Miller’s hyper-specific dialogue through Hira Tekindor’s Turkish translation could easily result in tonal muddle. Ova, however, dismisses the idea that the Loman family’s crisis is geographically restricted.
“These kinds of significant theatrical works do not belong to a single culture; they speak to a universal human experience. That is why, when reinterpreted through different perspectives, they offer audiences in each geography a distinct and layered experience,” she insists. “While concepts like the American Dream may initially seem very specific, at their core they reflect deeply universal emotions such as ambition, expectation, and disappointment.”
Under Norris’s direction, the rehearsal room became a place to mine those shared fractures. He has stated his aim is to express the “fragmentation of Willy Loman’s mind on stage,” avoiding a polite period piece. Devlin’s architecture and De Frutos’s choreography are geared towards making that internal collapse visible.
Ova confirms this psychological interiority drove the process. “During the rehearsal process, the interpretations each individual brought from their own life experiences enriched the narrative on stage, adding further depth and complexity,” she says. “The theme of family, however, emerged as perhaps the strongest common ground. Despite cultural differences, we continually rediscovered how universal family dynamics—expectations, disillusionment, and intergenerational conflict—truly are. This multilayered dialogue not only allowed us to reinterpret the text, but also transformed it into a more vivid, relatable, and ultimately more striking experience for today’s audience.”
Ova confirms this psychological interiority drove the process. “During the rehearsal process, the interpretations each individual brought from their own life experiences enriched the narrative on stage, adding further depth and complexity,” she says. “The theme of family, however, emerged as perhaps the strongest common ground.
For Zorlu PAC, this production is more than an expensive co-production; it is an investment in a local ecosystem. It is a measured bet that Istanbul can successfully operate at the intersection of local star power and top-tier international direction, bypassing the old rules of engagement.
“With this production, we believe that performing arts in Türkiye have evolved to a point where they actively reinterpret and transform the global repertoire through their own creative power,” Ova concludes. “Following a 13-season vision and a preparation process, Death of a Salesman comes to life on the Zorlu PSM stage… As Zorlu PSM, we wish for this play to remain on our stage for years as an important part of our mission to create a platform where original, classical, and powerful stories continue to live.”
Accordingly, her ultimate wish couldn’t be more universal: “As always,” she says, “my hope is that audiences fully lose themselves in the experience and leave with a lasting emotional response.”
Featured Image: Filiz Ova – supplied by venue
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