Women Bring Life to War Front Line with Their Presence

Mehdi Nasiri, playwright, director and critic of theater, has been involved in the different fields of the performing art. He has made short films, written and directed plays. His books include ‘No One Expects You’, ‘Gauntlet’, ‘‘Don’t Let This Dream Comes True’’ Sholehpazoon’ and ‘The Stories of a Tortured Bear’.

 

‘Don’t Let This Dream Comes True’ is produced by Ravayate Fath (Chronicles of Victory) Institute. The play has a new approach towards the imposed war and its social influence on three young couples. The story tells three different stories of three women who try to stop their husbands to go to war in Soumar.

 

The cast and crew of ‘Don’t Let This Dream Comes True’ include; advisor to producer: Seyyed Javan Roshan, music: Enayat Khadembashiri, make-up designers: Maria Hajiha and Bahman Sanei, make-up artists: Bahman Sanei and Bahareh Asadi, poster and brochure designer: Farshad Ale Khamis, costume and set designer: Mehdi Nasiri, assistant director: Saeed Mohebbi, production assistant and coordinator: Mostafa Mobasher Amini, photographers: Fahimeh Hekmatandish and Nikzad Tavalaei, lighting designer: Babak Shahalizadegan, lighting execution: Kayvan Zaiepour sound recorder: Amir Kharazmi, media advisor: Marjan Samandari, media advertisement: Arefeh Mosafer Astaneh, set construction: Ali Taher Ghahremani and Saeed Salami

 

Behnam Tashakor, Taraneh Kouhestani, Fariba Aminian, Reza Joshani and Behrouz Panahandeh start in ‘Don’t Let This Dream Comes True’. The play will have performance at 18:00 until November 10 at Sayeh Hall of the City Theater.

 

Mehdi Nasiri tells more about the piece.

 

 

 

Given that Ravayate Fath Institute is the producer of ‘Don’t Let This Dream Comes True’, the spectators predict a play full of stereotypes and clichés about the war. But your approach is realistic. How did you write such a play?

 

I think the audience must connect to a dramatic piece. We should try to lay the foundation of the connection based on the real experiences of the spectators. The audience could connect to a piece through such process. If the world created by the writer would be distant with what she/he is experiencing, it would certainly be no connection and the audience does not believe the play’s atmosphere. The structure of my piece is realism. The real world of the people who had to deal with war. The war that was imposed on Iranians. Thus, I have a realistic approach away from exaggeration in my play. On the other hand, I want to establish a link between the real issues with values. Of course, we have tried to picture values not more than it is needed. We have not highlighted the values to the level of exaggeration. I wrote the play seven years ago and it has a simple structure back then. The three young couples tried to discourage their husbands to go to war in three separate episodes. But each episode is divided in three section and we witness the break in time. To have a balanced approach toward values and beliefs in the play seems to be difficult.

 

Has the soldier from Tehran come to the front line to escape his past and forget his divorce?

In our play, we are dealing with the change in that person after he had fought. He is a person who used to escape from his problems in the past before he had volunteered to fight in the war. He used to give up easily. His wife answers him when he says that the front line has not changed him at all, "The very fact that you are here now proves that you have changed."

The important point in the play is that it pictures the relationships between three couples correctly and in a way, which is plausible.

We see three wives whose husbands are fighting in the front line meet. The wives have come to the front line to see their husbands. The dialogues are conducted friendly and seem plausible. I believed to have a realistic environment there. One of the three soldiers and his wife are expecting their child. We have a birth. We have a reunion between the couple from Tehran after their divorce. The wife is trying to found her marriage again on the destructions and conflicts of war.  We have a review of romance and love between the third couple. The women bring life to the front line with their presence and life goes on during the war.