Trends and welds in play writing from 1980 to 1990 in Republic Turkish theatre

The military intervention of September 12, 1980, was the beginning of a new period in Turkish political history. At the end of a military regime lasting three years, the so-called return to civil government opened another period which was not far removed from the oppresions and practices of the martial law which had preceeded it. This political period, personified by Özal, gave birth to a neo-liberal philosophy in which the decisions of 24 January, which also defined to a great extent the economic policies, were applied. As the concepts of "free enterprise" and "entrepenural spirit" created in the economy became the factors speeding up the capitalist period, so also the habits of consumption were created in society with the great support of the media. As the distinction, position and prestige of the individual were measured by his purchasing power, an artificial status was developed for rich circles in proportion to the brands and prices of the material things they used. As the winds of "change", clearly revealing the differences among the classes, continued to blow in favor of the bourgeoisie, the lower middle class tried to adapt itself to a way of life based on consumption. In this period a new social class was brought into being together with the concept of "ortadirek" (mainstay class) and attitudes such as "making a pile", efficiency and compromise began to be stressed. The inflation to which erroneous economic policies gave birth increasingly began to crush people at the lower end of the social scale. The working and civil servant portion of the population were in a blind alley and had no hope of surviving in such a period. A social pessimism began. The new applications which entered the agenda with the "Obscenity Law" and the "Police Law" passed by the ANAP administration are concrete indications that the atmosphere of martial law continued. As the oppression brought by these laws and the censure which they created directly affected artistic and cultural activities, a curtain was drawn over cultural life. The list of forbidden books continued to lengthen; thousands of intellectuals, writers and artists declared thought criminals were arrested and thrown into prison. In this period when writen and spoken criticism were outlawed, the desired "intimidation" and "discouragement" policies were realised. The depolitisation which marked this period brought with it a silent society. In this period the intellectuals, who would be expected to speak out and do something, preferred to retreat into themselves; those who did not were neutralised by the state because they were conspicuous. Society had gone into a period of metamorphosis in which everything was lived extraordinarily. In this period, when the Islamic movement gathered momentum, when murders commited by the state increased and when human rights counted for nothing, the cultural policy created by a new idea of state and society was bound to bring with it new trends. From the choice of plays made by private and suidised theatres, from the plays which were forbidden and from the kind of subjects considered by playwrights it is clear what kind of a time was being lived through. The political attitude of the 1970's was not visible in plays of this period. It was the season of plays in which political messages were confined to indirect expression. Writers concerning themselves with the individial were really after a social content. And the individual they portrayed was in the end the product of this society.