Masquerade Ball from Ecem Lawton

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Ecem Lawton, who rolled up her sleeves to bring the theatrical “Sleep No More” concept in New York to Istanbul, gave a very exclusive masquerade party in her historical mansion in Beykoz as a test run of the interactive theater she wants to adapt.

Photo credit: Emre Durmaz

Guests had the opportunity to explore the mansion individually at the masquerade ball, which included names such as Beren Saat, Kenan Doğulu, Nihat Odabaşı, Serdar Gürgün, Didem Soydan and Ayşegül Çoruhlu. The banquet table reminiscent of 16th century still life paintings, cocktails special for the night, the illuminated rooms of the mansion that turn into colorful clips of Ecem, and the photographer Emre Durmaz set up inspired by the MetGala and Oscar photo booths, the guests discovering the space forgot their own reality and had an aesthetically and artistically pleasing interactive theater experience for an hour, written, directed and produced by Lawton.

For the "Sleep No More" concept, Ecem Lawton, together with the theater actors auditioned and selected from among 200 people, offered the guests the opportunity to one-on-one experience a play they had never experienced before, without the third wall. The actors were accompanied by contemporary dancers of Dans Fabrika. Ecem Lawton, who sat in the director's chair for theater for the first time, was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Mask of the Red Death", the story of the "Bumaya" music video she directed for Kenan Doğulu in the story of interactive theater. Following the grand finale, DJ Kerem Önger accompanied the 1940s style "Uninvited Jazz Band" through the night, consisting of Turkish and Czech artists, and the guests danced the night away.