As part of Turkmenistan Culture Week, the the Great Main academic drama theatre named after Saparmyrat Turkmenbashy hosted a performance of one of its renowned plays, «Love of Oguz», based on the epic poem by Gorkut ata.
– There is an interesting story connected with this performance, – director and people's artist of Turkmenistan Kakajan Ashyrov told the audience in his opening remarks. – In the early 90s we went on tour to Canada. The place and time of the performance had already been determined, when it suddenly became clear that the shipment with the decorations was delayed. We decided to perform without decorations and asked the administration to give us two carpets, because a Turkmen without a carpet is not a Turkmen. It turned out that there is no Turkmen carpet in Canada. We were given two regular carpets. The Canadian public really enjoyed the performance, and upon returning to Ashgabat, we sent two carpets to Canada with the inscription in French «Turkmen carpet».
«Love of Oguz» is a highly ethnographic performance. It begins with a prologue in which the bakhshi, comfortably seated on the carpet, began his musical story about the oguz Beyrek and his betrothed bride Gulayym. In ancient times, this is how people learned about this legend created by Gorkut ata.
And the legend says that after seven years of captivity, Beyrek returns to the village disguised as a dervish, singing to the sounds of the bagshy dutar. Having learned that his parents were at the wedding of Gulayym, who was marrying his friend, he took the dutar and went to toy. Hearing the playing of dervish, heart of Gulayym trembled, but she was unable to express her opinion.The girl recognised him as her lover. Beyrek threw off his dervish rags and assumed his former form. It was a joy for all the fellow villagers. The elder announced that the wedding would continue, but with the groom replaced by Beyrek. Beyrek took former fiancé of Gulayym aside and asked him: «Why did he spread rumors about death of Beyrek in captivity?», to which he replied: that he had loved Gulayym since childhood and always dreamed of marrying her». A revelation of friend brought back their former friendship. And that one continued in the village.
The somewhat mystical ending of the performance: in the distance, the Gorkut ata monument came to life, and a wise old man wished the bride and groom a long, happy life.
The performance left the best impressions on the audience and theatre lovers.
