It’s 9th May 2013, day of the last rerun of our performance The Contemporary Hermit -MADE IN ILVA. Today is also the beginning of our practical workshop of theatre with students of University of Tehran. So it is an intense day, characterized by two experiences that have been among the most important of our career, professionally and humanly.
Bringing a denounce show like ours and leading a formation path through a very physical theatre in a place like Iran is, has increased our faith in theatre as a powerful expressive means, subversive at times, and as a fundamental freedom tool.
MEGALOPOLIS # Tehran, this is the title of the workshop addressed to university students occurred at the 16° IIFUT International Iranian Festival of University Theatre from 9th to 11th May, at the House of artists, a building with three floors surrounded by a park studded by sculptures and artistic installations. The workshop has introduced the students to our brand new international project MEGALOPOLIS – International experimental project in the global era, and this was its second phase, after Mexico. The project was born at the end of 2012 in Mexico City, megalopolis par excellence, where we worked with students of the National University of Mexico around the concept of “Global” City, born because of the effect of the globalization and of the constant increase of the phenomenon of urbanization.
In that first phase we tried to identify the common and standardized traits of contemporary societies, and at the same time, the ones hidden beyond the surface of the big urban areas, leaving out submerged cultural roots. Tehran, with its 18 millions habitants, was a perfect candidate for being the second step of this ambitious project that we will go on developing in the biggest cities of the planet.
Workshop at IIFUT aimed to explore the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity, inter-culture and globalization, starting from the investigation of memory of places and people we met.
Practical work occurred in a completely black theatre room, with access from a magnificent terrace standing out against the buildings of the south area of Tehran, and with a beautiful view over snowy mountains on the north of the city. Outdoor locations were so stimulating, especially for a project like MEGALOPOLIS, where we work in close contact with urban environment, that the first question I made to festival organizers was about the possibility of making some practical work with the students out on the terrace, to gather visual suggestions and to incorporate a bit of oxygen and warmth before plunging into the darkness of a theatre. Unfortunately I had to leave every hope of outdoor activities especially in public because it was forbidden. So we got into the room, together with the students, men and women, to deal with another set of rules and limitations that however we decided to inspect and explore from the artistic point of view, considering them as creative cues and not as obstacles.
The workshop with students was a unique occasion to learn a culture different from ours and to overtake many of our and their limits. A tool that allowed us to experiment with the participants new relational dynamics and contact possibilities on stage, in the attempt to respect the strict rules of a government that strongly influences relationships between men and women. Iran has a millennial culture and interesting contradictions and contrasts, so it has a very suitable context where developing MEGALOPOLIS. Texts in Persian and traditional chants were in juxtaposition with actions, texts and suggestions deriving from the effects of globalization. It has been very stimulating seeing a woman with her head covered by a veil making acrobatic evolutions, tasting the quality of a dialogue between a man and a woman where contact is not allowed and everything is about gaze and bodies tension, perceiving the will of students to learn new things and the pleasure of talking about theatre with European teachers, feeling that for every rule respected actually we had broken another one… Moreover new material of reflection and inspection to our Project was supplied by working on the contradictions of a country with graffiti against the Us where American flag has skulls in place of stars and falling bombs in place of stripes but where Coca-Cola or Pepsi are not missing. Moments of personal satisfaction were not missing, those moments that repays you for all the work you have done. The first day of workshop there were only three women. The second day the number of participants were doubled and women were equal to men in number. It was our translator that told us that the rumour about our interesting and new work had spread. And then we passed to exercises in couple where men and women, who normally could not touch each other, lifted all together a feminine body during the final scene of the performance prepared in three days with the students. Once again there are rules but theatre can elaborate them and sometimes suspend thanks to its poetic power.
