Bitef

Predlog je da se krene dalje, ali start »Don Žuan« koji je poslednji stigao umoran je. Vise nikakav zaplet za njega nema draži niti tajne. Nema tlh grudi koje u njemu mogu da izazovu siatku jezu. Prsti su mu umorni, a oči iscrpene. Vise oe može da preskoči zid harema... čak je i »Lolita« Nabokova mrtva. Umoran je ... umoran. Ali ona je u potrazi za svojom muževnošću, za svojom mladošću. Prostitutka Yagoshkha daje mu afrodiazik. Potraga se nastavlja. Rogonja Cbigakh ne može vise da vodi druge. Lagao je, on je übio onoga koga traži. Priznaje: »Übio sam ga ... nekoga sam übio.« i pada. Ulazak pustinjaka i mističoog pesnika Khogachia sve iznenadi. On recituje pesmu Jala-ed-din Rumija i u svima se budi nada. Khogachi mora da rna odgovor. Čeka vreme propovedi. Šta da im kaže? Njihova pitanja i očekivanja savim su različiti. I pustinjak im sruči u lice;

»Sva pitanja su bez odgovora, a svi putevi dorsokaci. Kladenoi nemaju dna. Sve je čudo <i pustoš.« Drugi uprkos tog priznanja traže Odgovor. Khogachi ponavija, da ne zna ništa i pada na zemlju, uzviknuvši posiednjim dahom. »O Vaterloi* Svi postaju nepodnošljivi. Počinju uzajamno optužbe. Svako mrzi svakoga. Pustinjak kaže: »Da, ja tražim svoga Uöitelja.« Odlazi sa oblaoima i živi u belini. Urne da übija kao mladić. Takođe je vest kradljivac. Smeje se. Jednom sam je video ka-o zver krupnim žutlm očima. Valja otići. Svedimo račune. Ko će biti vođa? Ko će biti na čelu? Ko ... Akhchig? Što da ne? ... Što da ne? Što da ne?

iranian theater breaks with logical tradition

With the skillful direction of Arby Ovanessian and the intelligent performance of the KARGAHE NAMAYECHE THEATRE, the play is a daring break from the traditional »logical« Iranian theater, in which there is an almost imperative relationship between cause and effect. Instead, this piece develops a mode of expression, dominated by surrealism and symbolism. The plot centers around eight characters from different walks of life, a »director«; and twelve »assistant directors«. The play opens with the »director« seated on the floor in the center of the stage, a whip in one hand, leaning on the other, reading a book. After the twelve »assistant directors« all of them anonymously cloaked from head to foot announce the play, the »director« gets up shouting with relief that he's finished his laborious task, and leaves the stage. The main action of the play then starts, as the eight characters enter one by one, asking for Zamenhof (the inventor of the universal language Esperanto]. They meet, relate their life stories, and indulge in superfluous and futile discussions.

They are guideless, helpless, uncertain and lost in the ambiguity of their separate quests for different aims. At the end of the play, they are still going on and on searching endlessly. Naalbandian's treatment of the plot is, appropriately, allegorical. In fact, the play is an all-purpose allegory in which Naalbandian combines various methods of expression going as far back in his approach as the old Greek times. One example of this is the twelve »assistant directors«, who among other things, are a variation of the chorus in clasical Greek plays. The numbers indicated in the title of the blay reveal yet another of Naalbandian's alegorical expressions: Iran is now in the 25th Century of its historical existence, its 14th Century of Islam, and we are al living in the 20th Century. Time, in other words, is eternal and man's questions are valid regardless of time.

Caspar Alvandi

TEHERAN JOURNAL, December 18, 1968

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