De Abrikozenboom (Kayısı Ağacı*) Klub Kilim & Eigen Kweek

In the early years of his life, Ali Can Ünal lived with his grandparents in Çifteler, a village in Turkey. In the village there is a large apricot tree, and under it Ali Can's grandfather tells stories. Towards the end of his life, the grandfather gets Alzheimer's, which makes his stories more and more vague, strange but also dreamy.

In De Abrikozenboom, a performance that premieres at NTGent, Ali Can returns to a backdrop of children's drawings and cardboard castles. In several narratives, he moves from his personal life story to that of the great stories of world history and back. Searching for the source, he finds himself in a tangle of dreamy memories.

From the grandfather and the apricot tree, to the village square with the bears, to the Persian fort, to the cave of Adam and Eve. De Abrikozenboom unfolds like a three-dimensional comic book along iconic tableaus, always searching for the 'core' of all the chaos in the world.

De Abrikozenboom is a visual performance by the young Ghent collective Kulub Kilim in the tradition of Ali Can's Turkish grandfather's storytelling. Ali Can returns to a source of first memories. For that is where the story of man and his own begins, under De Abrikozenboom.

The theatre collective Kulub Kilim (kilim means woven carpet) saw the light of day in 2022, and includes Joeri Happel, Ali Can Ünal and Rozemarijn van Kalmthout. In collaboration with Lieselot Siddiki (acting) and Sinan Polatoglu (music). Siebren Nachtergaele takes charge of business management and communication.

De Abrikozenboom is a co-production with NTGent and co-sponsored by Eigen Kweek (www.eigen-kweek.be).