Standing at the Border Zero Point | Theater Is Therapy for Me

The play "Boran" is currently being staged at the Theater City Workshop Hall. The play is written by Ali Delgoshaei and directed by Kambiz Bonan.

An interview with Kambiz Benan, the director of "Boran" show.

The show "Boran" is on the stage these days at the theater workshop. The show is written by Ali Delgashai and directed by Kambiz Benan.

Arjan Ambassador, Shagaig Arafinejad: The play "Boran" is the story of a soldier who loses the border between memories and reality in a border region. The two characters of this show are played by Maryam Yousef and Masoud Khajevand, who will be on the stage until Friday, 24 October. In this interview, Kambiz Benan talked about this work and his need for theater:

Tell us about the choice of text. How did you choose this text?

Last year, I had proposed a completely different text. It was a play called "Guda" written by Ehsan Feka. This play had 8 characters, and despite that, they gave us the workshop hall of Teatarshahr, which is small. With about 30 years of experience, I wanted another hall, not the show workshop, which is for workshop and experimental groups. Even if this was not the issue, the performance of this text with 8 characters in the drama workshop was not justified. Because the workshop space is small and has 20 to 26 seats. If we wanted to perform that text, the number of our actors would be more than the audience. We decided to change the text and Boran was again suggested by Ehsan Fuka, who is an artistic consultant. I was familiar with the text, but Ehsan Feka's suggestion made me remember this text again and work on it.

We don't have anything called rehearsal in the theater anymore. As actors in the 70's and 80's, we used to practice the same thing 30 or even 50 times a day. When we were working on "The Thirteenth Night" with Hamid Amjad, we were in training from 9 in the morning until 5 or 6 in the afternoon. As well as "Postokhaneh", "Bay Milk and Sugar" and "Pilgrim". Now you can't tell an actor to go to rehearsal every day. Because the economic situation is bad. If you don't have money, if you don't have producers and investors, you can't tell your agents to come to practice every day. You may not believe it, but I think we performed the Boran show with 20 or 21 or two practice sessions.

Let's talk about the text. In your work, the border is a central concept. Can you explain about it?

One of the reasons that made me go to Buran was a personal reason and experience. We create boundaries for ourselves. All people have these boundaries and we think we are right and we stand there, even when we are wrong. Then, people treat themselves and fight and break the fence and go out. Although I insisted on showing that killing them doesn't erase their memories, they'll always be with you, but it just makes the encounter different. The influx of these memories every night in different ways does not let us live until we get used to them. But in the end, we are the ones who decide how to deal with these memories.

It takes a while for your audience to realize that the story takes place in Iran. That is, at least until we hear Reza's name, we will not understand that we are in Iran. Space is such that it can be anywhere.

This happened completely on purpose. Because the topic and analysis I talked about is universal. That is, there is something like this in all people. I basically insisted on not showing a specific climate or geography. I didn't even like to consider a specific course. For example, in one part of your dress, you may see the first Pahlavi dress, in one part, for example, it uses the Russian army. This was on purpose.

I staged this work with personal capital and therefore had limitations and now we are promoting the work with the help of friends. My old friends had media and were on stage in the "Korosh" show, which is now on stage in the main hall of Shahr Theater, and they also advertised for us at the same time. Like Amin Miri, Navid Farahmandi, Niloufer Houshmand, Roozbeh Hesari and Mr. Nader Burhani himself. We started the work very quietly, but the comments that the audience wrote in Tiwal and the word-of-mouth advertising made the performance gradually gain more audience and now that we have just started, we have to gather in a few days. As a theater director who has worked in a government space, I know that I should be given a grant. But this allowance is very small. Maybe a few months after the performance, for example, they will give 10-15 million tomans to the group. Why should it be? Art group is supported everywhere in the world, but not here. Anyway, these are the issues that we have been talking about for years. If we keep repeating, we are speaking for those people who are concerned about art and want to work. Anyone who has experienced the theater knows that the theater makes him feel good. Either the one who goes on stage or the one who is the director or assistant. I took the stage with difficulty, but I was fine this time. For all theater kids, this work is a kind of therapy. For me it is an escape to the outside world. The corridors of the theater city and the plateaus have been making me feel good for years and I am sure that this is the common feature of all theater kids.