We are born depressed.

A conversation with Jalal Tehrani on the occasion of performing the The Tank^[1]

The performance of the play The Tank written and directed by Jalal Tehrani can be considered one of the events of the theater field last year. Especially since he staged this play again after seven years away from the theater. He started his professional career in the theater by writing reviews and articles, and then became active in the fields of writing, directing and stage design.

After 83, when he staged the play Hey big man, don't cry in the main hall of the city’s theater complex, he had not performed any other work...

You wrote The Tank in almost ten years ago and performed it a little while after that, but it seems like the show is more similar to the atmosphere we're in today than it was back then. This rationing of gasoline, the desire to immigrate, etc. seems to be more of a concern these days than, for example, ten years ago. That is, the space that was an abstract nowhere for us in the first performance of this show, now it seems to be more real and objective.

Isn't your intention with this question to stop the continuation of this show?

Of course, not at all.

I don't think that today's conditions are significantly different from those of ten years ago, I mean the difference is not that much that back in the day no one could relate with the theater. Anyway, The Tank is a text that is imagined and I don't explicitly consider the issues around me for writing or performance. If you remember, when the Taliban were fighting America in Afghanistan, plays were written and performed around this issue. Some of them were not bad. This happened in the case of Iraq, and the issues of countries like Egypt and... have attracted the attention of some people. I have not written or performed a text in any of these periods and according to the events. The environment itself affects us and unconsciously has its own effect on our works. But my interest in the work is not the conscious use of the elements of the time. Maybe that's why The Tank, despite being written more than ten years ago, you think is more relevant to the current situation.

This feature can be seen in almost all of your scripts, but the fact that after seven years away from the stage, you decide to stage this play again, maybe another reason for the first question. If not, then the question arises as to why The Tank at all, especially since you have written other scripts over the years, none of which have been turned into a play.

Re-running the Tank has had a variety of reasons. One of the reasons was that at that time we could not finish this project due to its interference with the performance of Nefertiti.

So, you mean you can’t bring your other scripts to stage because of censoring.

Maybe. For example, if we wanted to perform Hey big man, don’t cry!, it might not be possible.

You see, when we compare the new performance of The Tank with its script, the changes are very small, so much so that they can be ignored, but on the other hand, the difference occurs in other places, such as the atmosphere that happens on the stage, and unlike the first performance, from a space to a certain extent. A more realistic place has become an unrealistic place.

The design of the first performance of The Tank did not fit with what we know as the design of realism in the theater. I did not start training again with the intention of making changes to the previous The Tank, and everything has been formed during training.

Another difference in the new performance is that it fells like the show withdraw in favor of the music. Now I don't want to use the interpretation that this issue is kind of paying homage to Alireza Meshaikhi's music, but it seems that scenes are formed that make us listen and pay attention to the music.

Yes.

So, it was done on purpose?

If this feature caused defects in performance then the idea was wrong. One of the questions of this project was, can we play Alireza Meshaikhi's music pieces in their entirety? I didn't even want the dialogue to be said along with the music. If we do not get the answer; We would change the question.

Was the idea of ​​the stairs in the same direction? Because this is the time when the audience's attention is drawn to the music.

The sum of the questions that "you guys" are asking, while it is clear and correct, it is not possible to give a clear, correct and complete answer as much as the question; . It means that as much as the question is clear, the answer cannot be clear. A performance is an interwoven collection. The theater is a system of systems. Music, decor, light, movement, narrative, etc. are a series of elements that are intertwined. For this reason; When you ask what stools do, I can't explain a single function. A theater in general is an action and these are also part of the action of The Tank.

I don't want to discuss the linguistics of this script or the worldview of your other plays, but whether you like it or not, you are known as one of the representatives of "Iranian Absurd Writing". How much do you accept this statement?

I don't think so myself.

Of course, another thing happens in the meantime, and the audience feels that the main action of the show has been formed before its beginning.

Maybe. But actually, the action is in the present tense. That is, it starts when the boys are waiting for their father to come and the main action; is the concealment of these is in the present tense. The action of the The Tank is not whether someone is killed or not. The Tank’s action takes place between these three people and it is all in the present tense.

These types of games also fuel these uncertainties. This multiplicity of reactions. How effective is this issue in this case?

The actors of this performance move pre directed on the stage.

Well, if we skip the performance of this show, you stayed away from the stage for seven years, even though your shows were successful at that time and you seemed to still have a lot to say, but this hiatus raises many questions. created During this period, you were sometimes present with stage design, which does not seem to be your main concern in the theater. Why?

I do not know. The most important result of not performing work for seven years and doing other things during this time is to live for seven years. But I don't know what the theatrical result was. If I want to answer honestly, it doesn't matter what effect these years have had on my theater career. I think the question you are asking is in good faith, but I don't think it is very important. Of course, this interruption occurred only in the implementation. There has been no interruption in the field of playwriting.

But we have not seen any written work from you during this time.

I am not interested in publishing plays, although I am making efforts to publish them. But the auditors, no two of whom have the same taste, and sometimes they make such ridiculous interventions in my texts that they bore me and I just leave them be. But those who should have read or performed these have done so.

You were supposed to direct a film a few years after Hey Big man, don’t cry! but it didn't happen either.

I still might do it. Last fall I was going to make Dance on the Asphalt when the sudden show of The Tank led it to be delayed. I may do this in the spring. We always have ideals in our minds, but we live in reality.

These seven years of absence, stop or whatever you call it, didn't make you depressed?

Not. We are all born depressed. Before school, we watch children's programs, we become more depressed, then we go to school and become more depressed, and... But did not directing make me depressed? Not. Life is short, it doesn’t worth caring about this stuff.

You faced many problems for re-execution of the play, but it was executed anyway, can this be considered the beginning of an execution process?

If there is another play on the stage after that, yes.

So, what’s your decision?

As long as I am involved in this project, I don't think about other projects. The Tank project must be completely finished; Then I think to myself if directing is more important to me or if I want to organize Maktab Tehran’s conferences in a more serious way.

Mr. Tehrani, in addition to all the important goals that you have considered for "Tehran School", I must honestly say that I look at this project with pessimism. The continuation of these conferences and goals without the financial support of cultural streams for an art such as theater, which naturally does not attract the interest of sponsors, seems a bit difficult.

Its continuation is related to all of us. Instead of looking pessimistically, we should all help to keep it going.

Maybe it's better to use the word "worry" instead of "cynicism".

You have the same type of anxiety even when you want to buy a piece of bread. Whatever you want to do, worrying about the price of coins and dollars will exist. Humans are anxious animals. But that doesn’t mean we have to stop doing anything. We try our best to focus on the theatrical aspects and not go to the sidelines. We want to work on the foundations of the theater building. Actually, what threatens the continuation of Maktab Tehran’s conferences is not the lack of support from cultural currents. It is the youth themselves and their needs and dreams. They are often not looking for structural funds and want to enter the cover of magazines in the closest way. When they enter the theater, most of them are thinking about television and cinema. When they come to these conferences, they don't come to work in theater, they come to find links to enter television and cinema. The fact that people are obsessed with foreign countries is also one of the important diseases of the theater of the last decade! Everything from the outside has become more important from the inside. I will tell you a related incident that happened in the fall conference; In that conference, because we always thought that puppet theater children are abandoned and they are not given the attention they should be, we designed several hours of workshops for puppet theater and children. We invited the best theater people these days and they were kind and accepted. Only one person registered in all these workshops. Later, I heard from one of the children's theater activists that they hold free workshops at puppet festivals and no one welcomes it. The people who work in kid’s puppet theater think it's all just making some dolls with wood and clothes, make funny voices, find a story to tell and call it a day; just so they can go abroad and buy whatever from “idk what” stores and come back. Some people from other fields of theater also look at theater in the same way. They work in theaters without dialogue just so foreign people can understand…! And the majority of the others think about cinema. Of course, I should say that these are not complaints, they are the characteristics and disadvantages of our theater. Dreams are also discussed here. We have ideals and realities. Theater kids also have dreams that do not fit with reality so they look for shortcuts. What threatens the continuity of our conferences is that one day these conferences will be held and no one will have the motivation to learn. There is no reason. We are not the ones to deceive young people with false promises. We are careful not to start a shop with the dreams of young people. We always emphasize that Maktab Tehran is not your launching pad for professional work; It's just an environment to nurture the talents you've found in yourself or think you've found, perhaps realizing you've come all wrong. Now how many conferences can Maktab Tehran’s students attend with minimum wage? I do not know. How far can I continue? I almost don't know. Because I have accepted that when we organize a conference, we become more depressed. But in theater, what motivates us to continue the action is the poison of reality.

Sama Babaei

[1] sahne magazine,  2012