Robert Daborne’s A Christian Turn’d Turk is an early modern English play, thought to have been written and staged in 1612. It chronicles the adventures and misadventures of John Ward, a real historical figure who was both celebrated and vilified in ballads and pamphlets. Ward was an English sailor who became a notorious pirate, then shifted allegiance to the Ottoman Empire and converted to Islam. The play dramatizes his (real) conversion and its (fictionalized) results, intermingling issues of religion, nationality, gender, conversion, and identity, amid a convoluted plot full of piracy, naval battles, political intrigue, betrayal, and murder.
Our production was directed by Noam Lior and staged by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (CRRS) at the University of Toronto, and the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies in the spring of 2012, as part of the conference, Early Modern Migrations: Exiles, Expulsion, and Religious Refugees 1400-1700 — organized by Marjorie Rubright and Nicholas Terpstra.
For more on the Early Modern Migrations conference: https://crrs.ca/pastevents/early-modern-migrations/
For more videos and materials from the performance of A Christian Turn’d Turk: https://crrs.ca/events-main/conferences/a-christian-turnd-turk-videos-and-materials/
This production was directed by Noam Lior and staged by the CRRS, Poculi Ludique Societas, and the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies in the spring of 2012, as part of the conference Early Modern Migrations: Exiles, Expulsion, and Religious Refugees 1400-1700.
Video of the performance of A Christian Turn’d Turk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k4gOzHHy5E
Video of plenary talk by Dan Vitkus, and presentation by Noam Lior, introduced by Marjorie Rubright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaawYD-SO-Y