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 Tirdad philosophical group, which are archived in the “Chistiha Blog” (http://chistiha.blogfa.com); and after manipulating the concepts of those statements, and doing some brief practice 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 “sketching” 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, executive arrangements, dialogue, staging, and other matters and leaving 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 whatever came to mind in an instant, while being reviewed by the group members, as well as the title “sketching”.
And now we are sharing the same with you. May these exercises and sketches be the beginning of a path to step on a bridge between philosophy and drama.
Let us recall that the suggestions of friends and the ideas that followed were all derived from the discussions we had in the group; and in this regard, it is necessary to recall that these ideas belong to all of us who were in the group and sat and discussed and fearlessly maintained the dialogue and writing.
Ideas on the Bridge from Philosophy to Drama: Etude 115
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.
Idea number one hundred and fifteen
Etude 115
A black comedy (and of course close to grotesque) show
Theater of the Absurd
The scene is abstract and almost empty. Only a few rows of equal boards serve as classroom benches, as well as carpentry boards for making wardrobes and closets.
Time is on two levels, present and past.
In the present, we are in the classrooms of a college. And in the past, in a carpentry workshop.
The medium between these two times is the school bed, which we also see as a servant in the carpentry workshop, and it is he who practically always takes us back to that time.
Today, the classrooms must be sprayed to get rid of the cockroaches that are constantly multiplying. And in those days, the carpentry workshop was also involved in something that seemed to have cockroach eggs scattered everywhere. But they could not find the cockroaches themselves.
The only person who is himself and comes and goes in both times is one of the students named “Taha”
Taha wants to know. He is a seeker.
But he also has a thousand other problems. Including dizziness and headaches. Including physical weakness. And fluctuations in blood pressure. And that he is very sensitive but cannot get rid of the evil of his thoughts.
These have caused him to fall behind in some lessons. Lessons where he feels in his heart that the teacher is behaving in an annoyingly dictatorial way.
On the other hand, Taha loves rain. And when it rains, he goes out ridiculously and dances in the rain with his umbrella. He dances in deserted alleys. And whenever a passerby sees him, he stops. Just like in the movie Singing in the Rain.
Taha has two parallel personalities. Or maybe several personalities. But his behavior is too antisocial. At one time he wanted to become a choreographer. At the same time, he had seen the movie Singing in the Rain dozens of times. At one time, he wanted to go to MIT to study physics. At one time, he wanted to go work for charity for orphaned children.
In this play, we see professors who only give orders in class. Maybe three professors with three different understandings of political and social issues. But all three are dictatorial in some way. And they all agree in this story of cockroaches and spraying that these cockroaches must be destroyed.
The important thing is that all three professors constantly talk about the authority of their former professors. In a way that we feel that their behavior is an imitation of the behavior of their own professors. And their personalities have been formed in that system. But at the same time, they are incapable of even the slightest deep understanding of ordinary issues. And they cannot make a correct and rational decision about a simple issue like fighting cockroaches.
The students are all busy with personal issues and the fact that the classes are deserted. The only stable foot in the classes is Taha.
And in the story of cockroaches and spraying, Taha is upset about why cockroaches must be killed. And with poison. Maybe a better way should be found. For example, building special sewers for cockroaches. Away from the city. Go there.
Similar theses exist within Taha. Sometimes they come up in his interactions with Farash. Taha has no interaction with his classmates. But at the same time, he has some fun games that are sweet and funny to them.
One of the professors’ classes is a science class. He teaches the story of the fall. And the discussions around it.
One of the classes is a medieval history class. The story of the Inquisition is discussed.
These professors themselves do not lie a little. And they have lies that the students point out to each other as “horned lies.” Like “a talking parrot whose brain was connected to mine with a device and spoke for me.” Or “a boat that had come to our city had started on its own and I jumped on it.” Or the suicide of whales should be expanded to the suicide of illiterate and stupid students. It wouldn’t be bad if they all decided together!”
The games of these teachers are similar to the characters in the movie Dr. Strangelove. Just as exaggerating. Hostile. Violent.
And another teacher is a bodybuilding class that, because of the cockroaches that have dug up the floor of the gym, the teacher is forced to practice in the class itself. And this is the only class that has four students. The rest are practically two. And he hates the male crowd in the class. And that the only girl in the class never comes to his classes. And that he tells a memory about his old wrestling teacher, saying that he was noticed by one of his teachers during his student days, but later realized that his gaze was not pure. And he had to give up that discipline. And he always told this story in class. And now this bodybuilding teacher tells it to the students. And the students, of course, laugh and make fun of him; without causing them any regret. Only Taha is upset about this memory of his teacher. This memory in memory can also be combined in a way that in the carpentry workshop, a similar situation occurred among the carpenters once. And that carpenter ran away.
The bodybuilding teacher is the only teacher who is not so bad with Taha. And he almost understands him.
The only girl in this class, who is very fat and occasionally shows up for classes, is so cheerful that she is a laughing stock of the students. And she herself hates all her classmates. But for every teacher who comes, she has such a pitiful charm that everyone’s mood is upset. Her indecent flirtations and changes in her voice and ridiculously cute tone make even the teacher laugh.
This girl also plays the role of a cook in the past tense and in the carpentry workshop. And she brings food to the carpenters. And with that fat body, she has to bring the pot with someone else’s help every time. And once, he attacked one of the carpenters with a ladle, which he told him to do.
The interwoven structure of this play is such that without the scene going dark, the classroom turns into a carpentry workshop. And the connection between the two begins with a single sentence in the dialogue of one of the characters. And the roles change immediately. The individuals change from the roles of teacher and student to employees and the head of the carpentry workshop.
And of course, sometimes when Taha is talking to Farash, Farash takes us to that era and that workshop.
What happens in the workshop?
There, too, these beetle eggs have been causing trouble. And they are everywhere. Under the sawdust. In the corners of the walls. And in the warehouse, etc.
And no wardrobe is built until the end. All the wood is wasted and ruined.
What marks the end of this workshop are the beetle eggs that, due to negligence and over time, have become embedded in the wood itself. And practically no more wood is used to build wardrobes.
At the end of the story of the classes, we see that the classes are actually closed because of the cockroaches. All the professors leave. Taha is left not knowing what to do. He cannot travel like the other students who went to their own city because he has no money to sell. And he does not want to leave this lonely space.
He hides himself in one of the classroom closets until everyone leaves. And only Farash is left in the faculty. And then he comes out of the closet. When you see Farash, you are initially stunned. But he remains silent. Taha takes out a broom and a bucket from the closet and shows it to Farash. The same broom and bucket that were missing before. And he himself had become a problem. Now he puts a smile on his face with the sign that I will also take your job during this quarantine. While Farash is still stunned. And that’s it.
In this black comedy where nothing can be put in its place, we want to say that when the entire educational and upbringing system was rotten and the entire system was aimed at neither physical nor intellectual development, we unfortunately witness the collapse of that educational system.
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 any use for implementation will only be possible if the author’s written consent is obtained.
Contact the author: via Instagram (@pol.educational.group)