Gizemli Çorba – The Secret Soup

On a windy autumn day, a neon sign flickers above the door of the soup shop: 24 OPEN. Mysterious figures step inside. The scent of fresh soup hangs in the air. At a wooden table, Kara – the Mysterious One – and her interrogators are engrossed in a conspiratorial conversation. Who’s tailing whom here? It’s clearly not the first time these three have spoken! Haven’t they been popping in here for years? The tea-drinking men at the next table know exactly what has been going on here at the Stern over the past few decades. Very few are willing to talk about it. Only the drunken onlooker, who suddenly bursts in wanting a kebab, is talkative and has a very particular view of things. They are all inhabitants of an enchanted world right here amongst us. And lurking at the bottom of the soup is the secret! ‘Gizemli Çorba – The Secret Soup’ is a radio play by and featuring stattWerkSTADT, a collective that regularly develops artistic interventions for urban spaces. Taking the Turkish soup shop Bizim Çorbacı Deluxe as its starting point, a crime story inspired by the atmosphere of American mystery films emerged through creative writing processes, improvisation and interviews with local people. The radio play follows the trail of lonely gangsters and unlimited opening hours, from Hollywood’s American diner scenes right through to the Ruhr region, and finds its echo in the Turkish soup shop at Gelsenkirchen’s Stern. The audience is invited to take a seat. During the performances, every guest receives headphones and a complimentary bowl of soup. The radio play can be listened to in either German or Turkish. After the performances, both versions will be available for one year via a QR code at Bizim Çorbacı Deluxe. You’ll need your own mobile phone and headphones for this.