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The Mute Who Was Dreamed
- tour
Writer - Mohammad Charmshir
Director & Designer- Attila Pessyani
Music - Mohammadreza Aliqoli
Company - Theatre Bazi info
Venues & Dates - Tour details at end of review
Run Time - 1 hour no interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Theatre can take you into the heart of nearly inacessible places. It can
also take you deeper than before into your own heart. Theatre Bazi's production
achieves both in The Mute Who Was Dreamed, about the learning of a teenage
deaf-blind-mute, it draws on the story of Helen Keller and her teacher
who used brutal methods at times to break through to Keller's shut-off
existence. Iran too has been shut off from the rest of us, their culture
is more purely Iranian as a consequence. Even in the theatre women have
to conceal their bodily outlines and men and women cannot touch, but like
any restriction it provides a creative and stimulating spur to new work.
We're ushered to our seats by Hejab covered security police sternly shining
their torches. Two people, their gender almost indiscernible, sit eating
at opposite ends of long table, a live white duck stands between them.
The adult person eats in a civilised fashion, the younger like a wild
monkey gnaws at its meal.The girl Setareh Pessyani with the teacher,
Setareh's mother, Fatemeh Naghavi, give intense performances
which draw you not just onto the stage but into the minds of these struggling
humans. Between the edge of the stage and the audience is a wire fence,
the director, father and husband of the actors, Attila Pessyani,
sits behind it at one side, sometimes signing, playing live music or shining
a torch to add illumination. The girl's meal is suddenly removed and the
adult attempts to introduce to the girl the world she can not see or hear.
But she is rarely kind, often holding the girl's hand over a flame, giving
her scissors, a sharp knife, the dangers of the world aren't shielded.
Fascinating also are the teacher's introductions to her pupil of the elements
and other beings living in them, by way of a penitent's mask and then
the living duck, or the experience of water and a live swimming fish.
The performances are accompanied by music from traditional to modern Iranian
music and video showing war news, story-like images of the two, while
the very few intelligible words are from varied religious texts some of
which Western and Mideastern religions equally revere. As the girl learns
the teacher changes, becoming less civilised. She introduces increasingly
dangerous experiences, getting her pupil to use one half of a land mine
as a mask, then helping her feel for them in the sand. Later the pupil
takes charge, using a carving knife to cut flesh, placing the crown of
lights on the teacher's head, the same crown that teacher once made her
wear. Full of double and multi-meanings and symbols The Mute who Was Dreamed
is extraordinary. Almost wordless, it speaks so eloquently of isolation
and how difficult it is to understand or break through without destroying
something precious and rare. Quality of form, intent and performance this
strong is rare, so rare - it's well worth going out of your way to see.
© Thelma Good 11 April 2002
Tour Details for the two productions Theatre Bazi have brought from Iran
produced by Dramatic Arts Centre Tehran, and persented by the Centre
for Performance Research at Aberystwyth, Wales
For The Mute Who Was Dreamed and That's Enough! Shut Up !
Start of Tour
7 April at 8pm That's Enough! Aberystwyth Arts Centre 01970 623232
11 April at 8pm The Mute Glasgow CCA 0141 352 4900
16 & 17 April at 8pm The Mute London Riverside Studios 020 8237 1111
18 & 19 April at 8pm That's Enough! London Riverside Studios 020 8237
1111
23 April at 8pm The Mute Cardiff Chapter 029 2030 4400
25 April at 8pm That's Enough Cardiff Chapter 029 2030 4400
Tour Ends
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