Emine: stories of a caged nightingale

About the show:

“Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song.” — The Nightingale and the Rose, Oscar Wilde

“Your wound is the place where the light enters you.” — Rumi

When you put a nightingale in a cage, that doesn’t stop her from singing, it just fills her songs with grief instead. What happens, then, when a gifted little girl isn’t allowed to study?

After leaving home, and his mother, at 18, Halil spent a decade trying to disengage from her, and the decade after that trying to understand her.

In Emine: stories of a caged nightingale, he digs into how his mother’s unlived life shaped both their lives, who’s really to blame for it, and how that decade of searching changed him forever.

Expect intimate stories, accompanied by dark humor, deep Freudian analysis(!), judgements, and verdicts.

“Life is tender as a flower, and short as a day.” — Emine’s tombstone

Bio:

Soon after moving to Amsterdam from Istanbul, Halil had a burn-out that turned into an existential crisis and led him to quit his decade-long consulting career, take over a pizzeria, turn it into a comedy club, and start doing full-time comedy in 2022. Following his debut run at Edinburgh Fringe last year, he has been touring around the world with his solo comedy show.

His interest in storytelling began when he saw the limits of stand-up for exploring heavy topics, so he started telling stories that weren’t necessarily funny.

He is proudly sober for over 3 years, practices Zen Buddhism, has three cats, and wants to join a commune somewhere in the mountains.