Characters that live in words

A note on the show The Tank, Jalal Tehrani[1]

Someone was burned in an empty gas station. 2 brothers who work there, want to explain the story to the owner of the gas station, who is their father; But the problem to understand the incident is that each of the brothers says something different and...

Jalal Tehrani, the author of The Tank with short, beautiful, appropriate dialogues and with proper use of popular language in the play, explains and moves the event very well and does not allow the audience to escape with the suspense that comes from the heart of the dialogues.

In the play, there are complex relationships between 3 characters that the playwright has delicately arranged in the heart of the work; So that the dialogue is neither too much nor too little, and by removing the dialogue, a part of the character remains unfinished. In order to create tension, the author has created a character named Dadashi who has less intelligence and thus the narration he makes can be both true and false and the other brother can deny or confirm the truth of the sentences. This is why the audience remains in the contradiction of definitions and wants to know the end of the story.

In order to show the community around him and people's relationships, the author has resorted to pompous slogans and dialogues, but that doesn’t mean that it’s empty; Rather, it shows the crises and its impact on the process of society from a fundamental perspective.

Jalal Tehrani is also successful in directing the show. In directing the actors, he avoids any extra movements and by creating an atmosphere of low movement, he conveys the existing coldness and violence. He moves the work forward so subtly that the viewer does not think about the time for a moment. The mise-en-scène of the show is all in the service of the performance, so that the audience does not notice any dramatic movement; But all movements have their effect; The actors of the show (Majid Agha Karimi, Amir Ghanbari, Mohammad Sadegh Maleki) have a correct understanding of the director's role and guidance, and they play the role so well that they leave no room for explanation. But in the meantime, Majid Agha Karimi, the actor who plays the role of Dadashi, becomes more visible because of his personality.

Dadashi repeatedly mentions throughout the show that the pump tank is empty, but the The Tank show(the name of the play translates to tank or reservoir) is not empty and is full of good show moments.

Hossein Ghare

[1] Jame Jam, August 15, 2002