A Performance on Indifference of Man

Mr Fathali Beigi has not staged any play over the five years. However, he has been active as a university professor and secretary of ritual/traditional theater festival. He has also written several plays, which were staged in the capital Tehran and other cities, irantheater.ir reported.

His five-year absence from theater stage has given an excuse to talk to him on his play a few days to its public performance.

Prior to the rehearsal, Mr Fathali Beigi was asked about his five-year absence, he explained that it was because of the lack of the suitable condition. “Fortunately, the ground is paved for me now to stage “Seek a True Human”. It has been two months that the rehearsal has started.”

He regretted that he could stage at least four plays if the ground was prepared in the past.

Mr Fathali Beigi said that those working in the field of ritual and traditional plays were a few and any experience in the field were of paramount importance. “Such experiences could represent a novel manifestation of such plays to the audience. Such plays are faithful to old rules and play an educational role too.”

He hoped that the officials would prepare the ground for promoting and preserving the ritual and traditional plays.

On the content of the play, Mr Fathali Beigi said that it revolved around the indifference of humans towards each other, which had turned into a major challenge for the society.

“Why are we – human - getting indifferent toward each other? “It is none of my business” has become a typical sentence. I have put this negative characteristic in the context of justice to write “Seek a True Human,” he said.

To see a play in which both indifference and justice are shown in a traditional and ritual style could be attractive for any audience.  

“Any theatrical form has the capacity to show any subject to the audience. Takhte Howzi (or Ru Howzi) and Siah Bazi types of performance have changed throughout the history to embrace new subjects and lifestyles. They have the required capacity to raise today’s social subjects,” he said, stressing that any play, which was committed to the society and culture, could set off alarm bells. “The alarm bells for this play is “indifference”.”  

A type of Iranian folk performing art, Siah-Bazi includes a blackface clown-like character, who does improvisation to stir laughter. Both Siah-Bazi and Takhte Howzi feature blackface characters but the latter is a social theater that make humor of domestic life and used to be performed at Iranian homes on a stage over a pool of water that is often found in home courtyards.

The play is bitter but Siah (the blackface character) tries to soften the environment with its humorous spell.

The group includes both veteran and young artists such as Davoud Dadashi, Zari Emad, Sadegh Tavakoli, Shohreh Ashti, Manijeh Davari, Shahram Massoudi, Gholam Babouteh, Shahin Aalaeinejad, Shirin Kashefi, Nasim Tavakoli, Omid Mesbahi, Mohsen Poushaei, Saeed Vafaei, Mina Dastgerdeh and Mehdi Saffarinejad.

Sassan Mehrpouyan, Amir Hossein Ensafi, Hamidreza Jahangiri, Mohsen Mirhashemi, Sam Raad and Babak Mowlana play as Mobarak, or Siah, who is a male servant of the traditional Iranian families who is black and dress in red.

Mehdi Saffarinejad and Sassan Mehrpouyan are assistant directors, Nasim Tavakoli is the secretary, Hengameh Mofid composed the lyrics, Shahin Aalaeinejad the choreographer, Parisa Shahin the photographer, Massoud Shami production director, Mitra Rezaei public relations, Neda Entezami the media advisor and Ali Jabbari and Newsha Sardashti are the composers.