Hamid Amjad Talks about “Three Sisiters & Others”
No Push for Including Nostalgia Into Play
Hamid Amjad is a household name for Iran’s theater fans. The audience still remember his shining record with performances like “Without Milk & Sugar”, “Pilgrims” and “Lotus”. He is a talented actor who has a record of working with legendary Iranian theater director Bahram Bayzaei and Kamal Tabrizi. He has been staging “Three Sisters & Others” after twelve years of absence of theater scene. His play is written by him after mixing the world of Chekhov, Shakespeare and Iran’s folklore dramas. The following is excerpts of interview with Mr Amjad on his play.
How much was important for you to direct a classic and major play (huge decoration, well-known actors and actresses, multi-dimensional text and other renowned names such as art designers and sound designers) under the current circumstances that plays are being staged in small theater halls with a few actors without decoration?
I have never been concerned about “volume”, “dimension” or “splendor” at all. I am not worried about it now either. If you mean by “under the current circumstances” that I have to follow the rules of “most performances”, I should emphasize that I have never been a follower of such rules. Each play needs its own spaces. Some plays need bigger venues, others demand smaller ones. One needs decoration, the other needs not. Following such illusions and demands to do what “most performances” do mean that my play must be directed by social unconscious rather than I. But I studied such issues depending on my play. I had intended to stage “Forgetfulness” prior to “Three Sisters & Others”. That play needed a small theater auditorium because it had three actors. “Three Sisters & Others” needed a hall of different features.
I don’t get what do you mean by “renowned actors”. I choose my actors based on their capabilities and compatibility with the role. “Multidimensional text” has nothing to do with performing a play in a big or a small hall.
The color of your decoration is largely white. Is it a conceptual choice or has an aesthetic aspect?
The white color has no special meaning per se. The same is true for other colors! Any color is a visual sign and part of the whole system of typology and aesthetic structure. If the color creates a meaning or an impact, it is part of the rules of that typology or aesthetic structure. In our play, it functions as part of the whole visual environment like other colors. But we have intentionally used real stills of the time and place of the story and mansions built with white Russian woods. The intention was that my designer (Mr Amir Esbati) and I wanted to link the play with Chekhov’s life when he was writing his last play. It was a tribute to theater in Chekhov’s era and his first plays, making the audience to touch the feeling surrounding Chekhov during those historic moments.
A language of soft humor or sarcasm is seen in your play (when Firouzeh refers that Russians do not read a lot). It seems you implicitly mean our country too. What features you had in mind when you merged a classic play with today’s matters?
Any topic that we choose for writing will consciously or unconsciously reflect our current life too. The audience will also see the play like this. Therefore, it is better to consciously link our plays with our today’s matters. Yes, of course “Three Sisters & Others” is the product of the time and environment we live in now. These sarcasms and ironies (as you said) may implicitly refer to moving step-by-step towards the banality, nouveau riche, anxiety of not reaching what we want, immigration and displacement, a review of historical nightmares and concerns as well as other Chekhov issues, which the play is trying to tie it with the contemporary matters. You will find them more clearly in the book of the play.
As you have approached the middle age, it seems you have a nostalgic approach towards the bygone days. How much do you think the view can be seen in “Three Sisters & Others”?
I have not tried to include nostalgia into the structure of the play. Whatever included was needed to show the characters better. I suppose what you see as my middle-age issues are mainly Chekhov’s concerns as they could be seen in “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”. My play is a continuation of Chekhov’s concerns in the course of time.