"Kozy Korpesh – Bayan Sulu" in six Turkic languages at TÜRKSOY's student theatre festival in Turkistan

At the 4th TÜRKSOY International Student Theatre Festival of the Turkic World, which opened on 6 October in Turkistan, Kazakhstan, a special performance took place on 8 October: fourth-year drama and film acting students of the Kulyash Baiseitova Kazakh National University of Arts staged "Kozy Korpesh – Bayan Sulu" in six Turkic languages — Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Azerbaijani and Turkish.

The play is Gabit Musrepov's tragedy of the same name, based on the Kazakh lyric-epic tale. It tells of Kozy and Bayan, promised to each other since childhood, and of Kodar, whose greed and thirst for revenge stand in the way of their happiness. The tale is also known among the Bashkirs, Tatars and Altai Turks, and a medieval Kozy Korpesh–Bayan Sulu mausoleum still stands near Ayagoz in eastern Kazakhstan.

The production was directed by Professor Kymbat Tleuova, Honoured Artist of Kazakhstan, with Batyr Daurenbekov as Kozy Korpesh and Dana Akhylbek as Bayan Sulu; the 75-minute play ran without an interval. With its heroes speaking different languages, it put the shared cultural roots of the Turkic peoples on stage.

The festival is organised by TÜRKSOY with the support of the Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University, the Turkistan regional and city authorities, TİKA and Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture and Information. Other performances so far include "The Cuckoo" by the Azerbaijani team, Mukhtar Auezov's "Karagoz" by Kazakh students, and "Things Will Work Out" by the Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University.