What follows is the result of an idea to connect the field of philosophy and thought with the world of drama. Let us choose sentences to ponder from the statements of the members of the philosophical group, which are archived in the “Chistiha Blog” (http://chistiha.blogfa.com); and after manipulating the concepts of those statements, and doing a brief exercise and editing, let us create a dramatic idea that will continue to form another dialogue, another concept, and another thought.
In the principles of drama writing, “ideation” and “drafting” have a specific method; but we tried to be one step before the idea and the plot. At the same stage of mental spark or, in our own words, the “study” stage, where the writer’s hand is open to writing down any image, concept, or point. Here, we have not limited ourselves to not mentioning the technical instructions, performance arrangements, dialogue, staging, and other matters, and left them for more detailed plans; on the contrary, we have completely written down whatever came to mind at the moment.
During our group meetings, we came to the conclusion that it was not necessary to obtain refined and precise plans from our conversations. It was only necessary to immediately edit and record everything that came to mind in an instant as a “study.”
And now we share the same with you. May these exercises and sketches be the beginning of a path to step on a bridge between philosophy and drama.
Ideas on the Bridge from Philosophy to Drama: Etude One Hundred and Seventeen
Note: These sketches have been registered with the Islamic Culture and Guidance Department. And the intellectual property belongs to the author.
These sketches are only allowed to be republished on the “Chistiha” site.
Etude Ninety-Fifth
Stage play (method: play within a play)
People:
Tahmine Taherpour, writer and director of the play
Talaat Taherpour, producer of the play and wife of Javid Fazeli, owner of the Plato
Emad, actor, son of the neighbor
Taha, actor, son of Javid and Talat
Attila, actor, son of Mahvash
Mehvash Enayatnejad, gallery owner, and creator of the Build and Sell, and mother of Attila
Javid Fazeli, owner of the Plato, and a very influential broker in the gallery owners and theater people’s guild.
Stage: Fazeli’s Plato (which was previously Mahvash Enayatnejad’s Plato.)
The superstructure of the play is the objective reality of the present:
1)
First, we see a play in which Emad, Taha, and Attila are the actors. Tahmine is also watching their performance carefully from the sidelines. They are in the final rehearsals on this Plato; The actors are so immersed in their roles that we expect to see this play through to the end. Until, halfway through their performance, a noise from offstage catches our attention and we realize that all this has been rehearsal so far. And of course, in this noisy situation, Tahmina reminds us once or twice in her conversations and remarks that she has not yet completed this play. Finally, the chaos begins.
The noise is related to the fight between Mahvash and Talat. Over why Talat has complained about Mahvash to the municipality. And the rest of the events. When the two come to the Plato Hall, the actors’ rehearsal is disrupted. And throughout the performance, it is Tahmina who will do her best to end this affair and be able to perform the text that she has written for a year, is in the process of obtaining permission, and has been practicing for a long time. Although she still does not know how to end it. A play that is supposed to link the future to the past and the present.
These days, Tahmina is finishing Schopenhauer’s “The World as Will and Imagination.”
2)
Some time has passed. And there is still a strong disagreement between the two sisters (the younger sister, Tahmina, and the older sister, Talat) about whether or not to perform this play. With the arrival of Javid, the matter becomes even more complicated. There are various knots in this part that seem unsolvable: for example, if Talat continues to complain to the municipality, on the other hand, Mahvash will be stubborn and will not allow Attila to collaborate with Tahmina (because of the Plato document), and he will also do something so that several painters (who are also friends of Javid Fazeli) will not have their works accepted in his gallery or any other gallery. On the other hand, Javid has not yet cleared the last checks for this Plato, and the document is still in Mahvash’s name; the land here up to the end of the alley was mostly her inheritance.
. And if Mahvash is stubborn, she will not collect the checks and therefore will not give the document. And similar plot twists. Anyway, there is also a conflict between the couple Talat and Javid; of course, maybe when Tahmina is gone, not in her presence.
And what is the story of the play that the actors are rehearsing?
In this play, people from different times are supposed to meet each other to start building an ideal society, after the complete destruction of cities and the danger of extinction of the human race.
The play begins with Attila’s monologue. And we understand that when Attila is reading this statement, it is a thousand years from now. Around the year 3000 AD. The Earth has been almost depopulated; due to the wars and killings that have swept the entire Earth over the centuries.
Then Taha’s monologue begins. He is a representative of the past. Taha’s monologue begins: He takes us to the era when Genghis Khan conquered the world. He tells the story from two perspectives. From the perspective of the people whose cities were destroyed and burned. And from the perspective of the conquering Mongols who gained unique treasures during their many conquests.
After Taha, Emad’s monologue begins. He represents the contemporary era. He talks about memory. He talks about the radio program “Flowers” and about the lasting works of Master Ahmad Nadalian, which will last for years and centuries, and in the same proportion, a momentary work of wet hands and feet on a stone under the midday sun. And both of these, in his opinion, are the same. Eternity and the present are equal in the moment. This deep philosophical discussion is carried out by these three actors, who appear and advance one after another. And Tahmineh also comes in from time to time and, as a director, corrects the text or the dialogues and behaviors of her actors.
What are the relationships of these people and the adventures and conflicts (in the superstructure of the play) like?
Mahvash Enayatnejad, who is a long-time gallery owner, bought a plot of land on this very alley to build apartments. And with the money she gave to the municipality expert, she was able to get a permit so that there would be no setback. While there should have been at least three meters of setback on each side. At the same time, this plateau, which belongs to Javid Fazeli and his wife Talat Taherpour, has not had an official document for several years. Because it is still in Mahvash’s name; she used to own it.
Some time ago, Talat went to the municipality and protested to stop Mahvash’s illegal work. They also informed Mahvash. And he got angry and came to Talat to threaten, “I have so much influence that I will make sure that none of Javid’s friends can have an exhibition in any painting gallery.” And this is very expensive for Javid, who makes most of his living by brokering these works of art and exhibitions.
On the other hand, Talat also has a problem with Tahmina over the play’s text. Because he believes that this play is too philosophical and the audience is not patient with his so-called “nonsense”. And Tahmina is like a firecracker, “Don’t you understand what this text is?” And in short, although she wants to convey her universal message that peace is permanent to everyone, she cannot even manage to speak two sentences to her sister without tension. And as a result, she becomes more nervous.
Javid’s presence in this group, to untie several knots, itself causes new conflicts. Talat suspects Javid that he may have a secret that Talat is unaware of. And in short, continuous conflicts.
In Tahmina’s play, many dangers of the destruction of life on earth and the extinction of humanity are predicted, and some of them will be mentioned in Attila’s monologues. And also, it is probably included in Emad’s monologue in a way that resembles a statement (similar to the futuristic statement in Chekhov’s play The Seagull). Including:
Extreme climate change; and global warming
A nuclear war, in World War III
Manipulation in biology; and destruction of ecosystems
Mismanagement of the world; and the collapse of the world’s economic and political systems
Artificial intelligence; and the alienation of human souls from each other (something that is not very noticeable.)
All of these possibilities exist, unless humanity changes its way of life, thoughts, and desires.
3)
In the last act, however, everything is unexpected. We see that it is the first and last day of the play.
The play begins with Attila’s monologue. It is a thousand years from now. And the Earth is almost uninhabited.
After some time has passed since this monologue, Attila comes out of his role and apologizes to the director (Tahmineh) and the audience, and pauses and distances himself by explaining that “we experienced the events of our lives during this performance.” Mahvash has entered shyly. Attila leaves. Mahvash enters into a conversation with the audience. He introduces himself and then, as a confessor, shamefully describes his life. He also says that during all these rehearsals, Attila has become so absorbed in his role at home that he has spoken to his mother from the future as a social reformer and forced her to go to the future. In the future, he imagines himself as having to rebuild the world with his son. Taha has arrived. Mahvash leaves.
Taha’s monologue begins: It is part of the same monologue as the previous one about the attack of Genghis Khan the Mongol; And then with this poem of Rumi, he continues: “What goes from sea to sea, from that place, Kamed goes there.” Taha’s talk, who represents the past, will now continue based on the wars of the past and the wisdom of the predecessors (this part proceeds with the help of the book “Wisdom of Khosrowani, pp. 408-409-600-601). And he is talking about the heavens and the stars according to the views of Suhrawardi, Nasir Khosrow, and Azizuddin Nasafi; about time, he says, “Know that the heavens and the stars are the preserved tablet and the book of God, and everything that was, is, and will be is written in this preserved tablet and the book of God…” And also about Sayyid Jamal Asadabadi, and Iqbal Lahori. He also talks about his lived experience. His mother has come. Taha leaves. Talat introduces himself on stage and confesses in an indescribable manner in front of everyone. He wonders how much Taha’s monologue rehearsals at home have affected him. And he makes them realize the death of people. People who have come and gone. Some of their memories were war, some were wisdom. Imad enters. Talat leaves.
Emad also shares part of his monologue. He talks about the radio program “Immortal Flowers” and when he describes the enduring works of Professor Ahmad Nadalian, who, in his opinion, is equal to immortality and being present in the present moment, he refers to this play. A play that, by emphasizing a sequence from a documentary, transformed his personality. Emad says that in order to better understand his role, he went to Dr. Nadalian’s documentary (The River Still Has Fish; by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb) and watched the documentary dozens of times. And this documentary and that one particular sequence had such an impact on him that nothing else could compare. The sequence that Dr. Nadalian creates next to the stones with the image of fish and perhaps they will remain for millions of years, and the image of his hands and feet on the stone that will not last more than a few minutes: Good job; that’s it. When he gets there, he invites Javid to come on stage. Javid enters. Emad leaves. Javid introduces himself and begins to confess, in a confessional manner, the influence that Emad has had on him during this time. Like father and son, they have often gone to the restaurant on this street together and have talked about the people of this neighborhood, people, and life. And they have thought about how good it would be if every restaurant had a theater stage (to give a new perspective to society; a society that is hungry for a new perspective).
[This play will be dedicated to Professor Ahmad Nadalian. That means the end is clear.]
Now the change that has taken place is this: Now everyone agrees that it is good to skip the complaints at the municipality. The good of a few extra meters on the street. Maybe the good of building. And the good of gangs in the community of artists and gallery owners.
The main point was: “We must pass over all the good that is the war to take over the world. And all the good that is the world. And one must understand time, as Dr. Ahmad Nadalian, this master artist, had described. And the real art and the real artist is to say that one’s life is just one piece of the puzzle of all lives. And the meaning of life is fully possible when everyone plays their role consciously and in the best possible way. Just like the pieces of a very large puzzle.”
The show will end with one of the memorable songs from the program Eternal Flowers, which Tahmineh has invited us to. Tahmineh smiles alone and with tears of joy. She displays her transformation in silence.
Important point: The present tense is resolved in the current tense of that three-act play.
The play was structured on this basis: “We learned from the great Kant that time, space, and causality, by virtue of their complete agreement with the rule and possibility of all their forms, are present in consciousness independently of the objects in which they appear and constitute their content; or, in other words, they are perceived exactly as much when we begin with the mind as when we begin with the object.” (Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Imagination, translated by Reza Vali Yari)
This essay, at present, lacks the issue of a serious conflict. Other subsidiary conflicts can be added to this body and skeleton of the story, provided that they are in line with the same theme and subjectivity.
Author: B. Khosravani
It is recalled that any copying and extraction of these ideas, from an ethical and legal perspective, is only possible by mentioning the address, and use for performance will only be possible if the author’s written consent is obtained.