I have behaved strangely with my text

An interview with Jalal Tehrani, the director of the Autumn Sonata show^[1]

Some artists are selective, what they do is important to them, their production may seem small but it is valued. This selection is not due to laziness, this is their moral, but when their production completes, it becomes a masterpiece. Jalal Tehrani is one such artist. The silent and noble man of the theater makes the audience praise him with every show he puts on the stage. This time, he had a look at the script of Autumn Sonata by Ingmar Bergman

Perhaps the points of similarity between Bergman and Tehrani are their views on the lost, abandoned and aimless human being. A person who seeks communication and dialogue in the monologue world. We sat down to talk with Jalal Tehrani on the pretext of performing Autumn Sonata.

In these years, Jalal Tehrani is known as a playwright-director; That is, as a director, he used his own shows and not retelling or rereading, for example, another author's story or novel. What happened to change your habit?

Well, for these years, directing has become one of my jobs. This job has made a career for me seprate from drama writing. As a director, I choose any text to perform according to my situation. Then I practice it regardless of who wrote the text. As far as I have understood, in cases where I have directed my own text, I have behaved strangely with my own texts. I think this choice has more to do with empiricism than changing habits.

What was the feature of Bergman's screenplay that persuade you to perform it?

I was interested in the form he experienced in writing. That his people keep telling stories that are related to the past, but the action between them takes place in the present.

Was the removal of some characters, such as Eva's wife, Charlotte's lover, and even Hannah's younger sister, an executive necessity?

Maybe it was not an executive necessity; Rather, their presence was contrary to the way I look at the theater these days. In that movie, Victor has appeared in some way as Greek theater wives. And the amount of sensuality that Helena has in Autumn Sonata was not what I wanted

With the help of these two characters, Bergman ends his film in a sensational climax and sends the audience out of the movie theater with a sad feeling. This level of sentimentality has lost its appeal to me over the years.

In fact, did these omissions help the structure of the drama or the aesthetics of the performance?

Naturally, first it changes the structure and then the new building brings its own aesthetics.

One of the characteristics of your previous performances was the use of silence, but in Autumn Sonata you did the opposite, and we are faced with long monologues. Why?

Well, this is the feature of Bergman's text. In my works, monologues have not been lacking. But this work is really built with a chain of monologues. Of course, due to the necessity of the new form, I have divided parts between two actors.

Stillness in the mise en scenes of the characters is one of your directing features, but this time the stillness is more visible in the actors than in the building a dominant atmosphere for the show, why?

There was always a concern that me or the actors add extra movements to the show . It means that I have been careful that the movements produce from the honest encounter of the group with the text. Well, in this project, because the text was written by someone else, we acted more cautiously, and because of the less domination we had with the text, we acted more cautiously. Loyalty to the text and not imposing additional creativity on it is one of the basic principles of my direction. It doesn't matter whether it is my text or begrman's.

In the performance of Autumn Sonata, more emphasis is placed on the correct expression of the words than on the beauty of the position; this point has been observed even in the lighting. The light is focused more on the face and neck of the actors than on their bodies, what is the reason for this emphasis?

The film Autumn Sonata is full of close-ups; Besides, it has brilliant decoupage and montage. Our theater has been influenced both by Bergman's film structure and by the structure of cinema in general; In addition, this is a theater and actors' expression is an important part of the performance.

In Bergman's Autumn Sonata, the character Eva played by Liv Ullman was more gaunt and more introverted than Bahare Rahnama, was this extroversion your choice?

We hoped that this show would benefit from the contrast between Ms. Rahnama's extroversion and the role's introversion.

Many believe that Autumn Sonata is the peak of Ingrid Bergman's acting glory in the role of Charlotte; A kind of artistic testament, but in your show, both characters are equally challenged, is this a performance necessity?

Bergman himself admitted years later that because of Ingrid Bergman's cancer during the making of this film, he neglected to deal with the character of Liv Ullman. In a way, he has appreciated Liv Ullman's greatness and her flexebilty with this issue. But in the script, both characters go hand in hand. Well, I saw this interview recently. But at first it was clear that Eva's role in the film was not treated as it should be. Even Bergman's film has subtle yet important differences with his script. That's why parts of our theater are not in Bergman's film at all. It means, it cames from the script to our performance. It seems that Ingrid Bergman's brilliance in that film had more to do with the emotions going on during the production of the film than structural reasons.

How did you choose Golchehra Sajjadieh to play the role of Charlotte?

Ms. Sajjadieh is an experienced actress with a strong style and charisma on stage. Her presence in Iranian theater and cinema is a fortune.

What is the reason for using accentuation in character dialogue? Extend the verbal problem of the younger sister, Hana, to two other characters or a performance experience?

Performance experience. Since this theater is very related to the cinema, we made choices in the field of movement, image, light and expression to unconsciously show off the cinematography of Autumn Sonata. For this reason, we removed the empty space between the sentences to evoke a kind of cinematic and technical industry.

Inevitably, the silences had to be transferred to another place, including the sentence. We moved the silences before the verbs. Of course, no choice in the theater has only one reason and does not imply one concept.

Were these accents a sign of lack of communication between mother and daughter?

It can be. It can indicate a weak ability to communicate.

In your mise en scenes, Charlotte (the mother) and Eva (the daughter) are far apart, are these signs of their internal differences?

This is one of the choices that is supposed to evoke cinema. But yes, they are in two separate lines and they have to work hard to break this gap.

The social view is always seen in your performances; What is the social necessity of autumn sonata at this point in time?

I agree with you that there is a social perspective in my works. But I have no intention and emphasis on their sociality. Autumn Sonata is extremely human. The problem of the theater and my problem is the human encounter with existence; It has always been. But in every theater, there are all social and political aspects.

Do you look at the gap between generations?

The problem is people's loneliness. There is a fundamental and deep gap between people of the same generation.

Bergman is an ethical director, and you are a director who always has a more social perspective in your works; How were you able to reach common points in your and Bergman's works?

Ethics and society are not two separate fields. Facing any finished work, depending on the point of view, one can fully interpret the moral, social, love, etc.

Is using another artist's work to direct as a starting point for your future experiences?

It is an experience. I have always commented on other texts. Ten years ago, I proposed Brecht's Galileo to the city theater, but they did not accept it. This experience is not considered a change of procedure. It may happen again.

Do you consider "Autumn Sonata" to be a continuation of your previous experiences, or does this show fall into another category?

In continuation of previous experiences; In addition, each project has its own independence; must have, I think so.

[1] Tajrobe monthly magazine , No. 50