An Interview with Atefeh Tehrani about “Café Lethe”
People Go to Café to Forget
People Go to Café to Forget 2
People Go to Café to Forget 3
People Go to Café to Forget 4
Atefeh Tehrani is a modernist and experimental stage director. She is founder of Bekhan (read) Troupe. She uses physical performance to stage adaptations of famous plays. She has staged “Read”, “Othello” and “Snow of Mid-Summer”.
Lethe deals with the underworld and its challenges. Lethe is was one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades in the Greek mythology. Those who drank from Lethe experienced complete forgetfulness. The topic is chase throughout the piece, resembling the café into a place where people enter to experience forgetfulness. Physical movements are the first and the last in the piece, accompanied with music, audio effects to transfer contents to the audience.
the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often identified.
Navid Hedayatpour, Maryam Baqeri Nasami, Oveis Mohammad Hassani, Sina Saberi, Estire Mortezaei, Sepehr Ghazi, Pedram Mehri and Nazanin Mihan are the cast.
Other crew members are choreographer and director: Atefeh Tehrani, producer: Noreddin Haydari Maher, music: Ali Kianian, make-up designer: Maria Hajiha, lightening designer: Ali Kouzehgar, costume designer: Nasrin Khorrami, graphic designer: Mohammad Sadeq Zarjouyan, photographer: Alborz Taymourzadeh, media advisor: Sam Beheshti, online advertisement: Morteza Kazerani (Tehran Theater), assistant costume designer: Shima Mosfehi Shabestari, make-up artists: Ali Godini, Farnaz Mortazavi, Saeed Siadat, lightening: Mostafa Jolambadani, sound recorder: Farshad Mohammadi.
The piece is on stage at Sayeh Hall of the City Theater. An interview with Atefeh Tehrani follows;
What are the attractions of the Underworld, which made you to stage “Lethe”?
I studied Greek mythology for sometimes and was interested in them. In Lethe in the Underworld, the dead would come, pass through the river and drink from its water to experience forgetfulness. It is a very poetical process and is attractive. I intended to stage only the Underworld. But with passing of time, I felt such process would be too mythological and classic. Therefore, I started over and the river was the only thing left from the previous text.
Do you prefer to stage a modern “Lethe” piece?
Yes. I like to experience when and where the people seek forgetfulness. It happens differently for every person.
How this forgetfulness happens for you?
It was interesting for me that people would enter the café when they were in bad mood. They would leave behind their bad mood when they enter the café and start thinking over other issues. I have seen such situation in many people who spend lots of their time in the cafes.
Are these people grappling with routines and dailiness?
They want to escape from themselves and distance from the world.
Café is a modern phenomenon. Lonely people in cities are attracted by them.
We can look into the matter like this. But I think people want to forget themselves. The same is true for me too.
Is “Café Lethe” a limbo where the dead await to enter the Underworld?
It can be a limbo. The forgetfulness and being forgotten are important. The limbo you referred to is felt by some audience who had seen the piece too. I left the door open for the audience to have his/her interpretation. I do not want to impose anything on them or say my view was this or that. Each audience can have his/her personal understanding of the piece based on his/her emotional experience.