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Online CitizenshipShagaig Arafinejad: He wrote and directed several plays in this field, among which can be mentioned: “Who Goes First (Har)”, “Collision”, “Takht and Dagger”, “Diamond Knife Seller”, “The Sultan in Disguise”, “Mirza Abdul Tam and the World War”, “Cheshem Don”, “Be Careful with Your Hat”, “Mirza Farfareh”, “The Forbidden Performance”, “The Wedding of Shah Parian’s Daughter and Hakim Maler”. Nei Publishing House recently published the book “Romantic Imitators”, a conversation with Fath Ali Beigi about traditional Iranian performance and its history. We talked with Daud Fathali Beigi about the current state of traditional Iranian performance and the publication of this book:
The status of religious performances and Iranian performances can be examined in the eyes of the people and government trustees. What is your assessment of the current status of these two types of shows?
During the long years that I have been following the Tazyyeh festival, wherever the Tazyyeh festival was held, there would be a lot of spectators gathered around. In some places, there were even more than two thousand people watching. Therefore, this art still has a place among the masses, and everyone sees this art from their own perspective. The joyous show was warmly welcomed every time it was performed. But the reason for the decline of this art is that, unlike other Asian countries, we have not provided conditions for the latest supply of these arts. On the other hand, we have not established a school where these arts can be taught face to face and academically. These are the negligences we have committed in this art. Despite these unkind things, we see that these arts are still breathing. This shows that in our society, Iranian drama and ritual drama that occur due to cultural continuity still have a foundation, status and acceptance.
What about the government?
The government’s support depends on who becomes the manager. That is, it is unorganized. Everyone supports according to their own understanding and interest. Some managers do not care about this kind of performance at all. We also have managers like Mr. Ali Montazeri who supports us in every way. In his time, we used to perform thirty nights of prayer instead of ten. It was during his tenure that Tazyyeh first went out of Iran and performed for five nights in Avignon.
So is the look tasteful?
Yes. It depends on how much ethnic sweat and cultural acceptance a medical administrator has. We had a deputy minister who came to office after Mr. Montazeri. We had a meeting with him, and at the end of the meeting, he said he would solve this problem. That is, this problem is a problem for him. Or we had a director who went to Avignon with us, and after the performance he would leave the hall without a word or even tired. If Mr. Montazeri was with us from two o’clock in the afternoon until the performance of Tazia, he didn’t want to do the right thing.
What is our current situation?
It has been several years now and Tazia is only held a few nights to make sure the petition is not empty.
One of the things that’s happened with traditional performances in other countries, like Japanese Kabuki or Chinese performances, is the updating of those performances.
If the traditional show is updated, it is nothing. They use these performances to create new works that are no longer Kyogen or Kabuki. But they keep Kyogen unchanged. They keep the monuments of the old traditional performances. The old buildings of our traditional performances are the only ones we allow to disappear. Or there are large cafes where Naqali and Ruhudzi are performed. With their destruction, we have to build halls so that ablutions, naqali, ta’ziyeh and other rituals can be performed in them. This is called a demonstration today. That is, it is considered an artistic phenomenon. This is the occasion of Muharram. But we have more than 500 majlis, not all of which are Muslim. For example, Majlis are like Iskandar and Faghfur Chin, Sultan Mahmud and Ayaz. Therefore, we must have a special theater for Iranian and religious performances, where different types of performances can be performed completely in the old style. At that time they used bee lights to illuminate the space, we use projectors. Such changes should be made. Or create works according to the traditional structure. Narrative shows have their own rules and conventions. As we have seen in the late Qajar period, eulogists had an approach to ancient Iranian literature and wrote odes such as Sultan Mahmud and Ayaz or Leli and Majnoon.
Or Taji Naseeruddin Shah.
Yes. It is written in a similar vein to the murders of Naseeruddin Shah, Aamir Kabir and Siavash. Because they realised the capability of such shows, now they are telling a contemporary story based on it.
So, do you think we can create appeal for audiences with new stories in traditional formats?
Yes. Great people like Bahram Bezai took advantage of this structure and created a series of narrative performances. Like the Death of Fatehnam in Yazdgerd and Karat. That is, it draws inspiration from the source and creates new works. You can see that traditional theaters in Japan and China are still standing and many people visit these performances. I even saw a video of a Naqali performance shot by a friend in China. The Chinese tradition has always been in coffee houses. Now the traditional coffee houses have changed shape and they built small halls and shallow stages where they perform. Now one of them says quoted and the other says no. They have male and female carriers. So they have updated the way these arts are presented. These halls are also built in communities that are interested in these arts and watch them. Even in these halls, they offer tea to the audience. Because they used to perform in coffee houses. Or in Japan, tickets for the “new” performances are sold six months in advance. But we turn a deaf ear to all this. Mr. Baizai, who quotes this theme in the last two pages of his book “Performance in Iran”, says that when Western theater destroyed the narrow walls of its stage by looking at the theater of the East and Asia, we followed the theater of 18th century Europe! Even in our universities, we have deleted the introduction of Tazeeh. Instead of promoting this important art. Some teachers even ask students to write papers based on the theories of Western theorists and directors. Our cultural enthusiasm has been damaged. For many years we have been calling that we need to learn from traditional performances. Who has been sitting for these twenty years is the expert of the Ministry of Science and Technology or the Minister of Science and Technology? Before the revolution, Ali Nassiryan said that these dramas are important, and Bahram Baizai wrote this drama in Iran, but no one paid attention. Even foreigners like Peter Brook said that you have a show like Tazeeh and were surprised by it.
Another question is how the museum feels about the exhibition.
First of all, we have not read all 537 versions of Ta’ziyya, which have independent titles and are repeated in more than 2,000 copies. Secondly, where in the world would they discard it for a phenomenon that is at least 300 years old? Can there be a higher theme than justice and anti-tyranny? What does Antigone do? She fights against dictatorship. What does Imam Hussein do in our Ta’ziyya? He fights against oppression. There is something wrong with our view. Many people do not have any information about you. They do not study its themes, nor its dramatic structure, nor its literature. They just oppose it. At least, it is a national theatrical phenomenon and a unique performance in the world, which must be preserved. It should be preserved as Kyogen, Bunraku and Peking Opera. But in Iran, neither the government nor universities show cultural enthusiasm. They even praise this art so much that students who like to do this performance are afraid of being laughed at.
How are artists in this field doing in terms of pensions? There is always a flurry of exciting words of support, and then nothing happens.
Since the establishment of the Artist Support Fund, a number of ta’zieh singers have been covered by the arts insurance. Our young friends have been supported in the Nakali region. In the field of joy performances, there is no shortage of young children who have benefited from the insurance.
How do you think the Provincial Guidance Department supports such performances and artists?
It remains to be seen who will take up the management positions. We have a proverb that says that any imperfection that the Sultan likes is art. If in the city center and the capital we want to organize a festival about frogs, then in the city everyone is looking for frogs. I would say that the city is subordinate to the center. This problem will not be solved until we create a center for the preservation and dissemination of traditional Iranian performances. Also, we must open up the field of education of these arts.
Where did the Saba Center for Ceremonial Arts get to? It had been planned to open for years.
It’s an insignificant building, and it’s not helpful at all. I remember we visited it a few years ago. They showed us a pool with a plank in the middle, and they said it was for ghost shows. They just heard that it must be on a pond. They didn’t research it at all. Or they built a black box hall for Ta’zia, where they said there was a catapult in the floor that moved it up and down. They didn’t know that the whole charm of Ta’zia was that the platform was constantly being redefined. No catapult was needed.
Tell me about the book The Romantic Imitator. How did it come about?
The book is a conversation about my activities in different types of Iranian and traditional performances. Mr. Shekarriz wanted to talk to some senior people in this field and at the suggestion of Ms. Taghian, he also talked to me. The interview was conducted in the presence of Taghian himself, who asked a large part of the questions. Jalal Sattari was also present, but he was not in good health. Anyway, it was originally published by Parse Publishing House, and now a third publishing house has also published it.
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