Middle Eastern Bloc season 2 ep.8: The centuries-long pandemic by Mirza Metin from Middle eastern bloc

In Spring 2020, when the first wave of the global pandemic hit the world, we were wondering how people residing outside their country of birth experienced the situation. How people living away from their families coped with the difficulties. We asked ten writers to reflect on their experiences and published the stories in the form of a podcast.

Now, towards the end of 2021, the situation has continued way longer than most of us could imagine. Different countries have dealt with the latter waves of pandemic with different strategies.The vaccination entered the scene but not all countries have access to it equally. Global economy and political relations came into play. All of these have created different experiences of the situation in different parts of the world. Some people deal with the disappointment of cancelled theatre performances and closed bars, some bury friends or family members on a regular basis.

We decided to reflect on the situation again in another season of our podcast. We asked writers and playwrights from different corners of the world to reflect on their experiences and their surroundings with the hope to draw a wider image of the situation and put things into perspective.

Mirza Metin was born in Kars in North Kurdistan in 1980 and grew up in Istanbul. Mirza has been involved with theatre since 1995. He trained as an actor with Teatra Jiyana Nû and Seyr-î Mesel and has performed in numerous stage productions. He studied dance and music for three years at the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory Department of Folk Dance and went on to graduate from the Istanbul University Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. He was selected to take part in the British Council initiative, New Writing Workshops with the Royal Court, which gave him the opportunity to work with playwrights such as Zinnie Harris and Mark Ravenhill and director Richard Twyman in workshops spread over one year. He founded Şermola Performans with Berfin Zenderlioğlu in 2008. He has won many awards and nominations for the plays he has written, directed and performed in for Şermola Performans. He writes his work in both Kurdish and Turkish. He is also the coordinator of the Kurdish Committee of Eurodram, the European network for drama in translation.

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