Cihan Acar's award-winning debut novel premieres at Theater Heilbronn - SWR2

The young Turkish-German Kemal is looking for his place in life in Heilbronn’s problem district “Hawaii”. He stands between racists and immigrants, between rich and poor. The novel by Cihan Acar was the award-winning first work of the Heilbronn author in 2020. Now the Theater Heilbronn is bringing it to the stage in an adaptation by Nurkan Erpulat and Andreas Frane.

Heilbronn as a mirror of a post-migrant society

“It was important to me that while reading, you can understand and experience the situation of young German-Turkish people in Germany a little bit,” says author Cihan Acar about his novel. And then to deal with the question of why there is still such a great distance between the majority society and the Turkish population. Acar has traced these differences using the example of Heilbronn.

Having grown up near Heilbronn himself, Cihan Acar — like his protagonist Kemal — has Turkish-German roots and gained experience in many of the novel’s settings as a young man. He adapted a lot in the novel, but it’s not his story. Now in his mid-30s, Acar lives near Heilbronn again. For the theater adaptation, he gave director Nurkan Erpulat a completely free hand — and is enthusiastic: “It’s a completely different level to see it on stage.”

From the street to the stage and back

For Nurkan Erpulat, on the other hand, a fascinating point in the staging of the material was the immediate proximity of the venues to the Theater Heilbronn: “It’s an incredibly great feeling. Because you do city theater in the best sense of the word, theater is local and that’s how it should be, and Cihan tells stories from this city and what could happen here.” Central locations, such as the Allee, are right around the Heilbronn Theater. This gives the production a special and tangible atmosphere, when you leave the theater you are right back in the scenery.