Negarestan Garden and the recollection of the murder of Qaem Maqam Farahani: Theater is a lamp and a mirror!

Ardeshir Salehpour, director of the play "Qaem Maqam Farahani," believes that choosing a space other than a professional theater hall allows the director to move away from the confined hall atmosphere and create a fresh experience.

Ardeshir Salehpour, the director of the play "Qaim Maqam Farahani", believes that choosing a space other than a professional theater hall will allow the director to distance himself from the limited space of the theater and create a new experience.

Ardeshir Salehpour, the director of the play "Qaim Maqam Farahani", which is on stage in Negarestan Garden these nights, in a conversation with Mehr reporter about his approach to performing this play and choosing the environment of Negarestan Garden to narrate the life of this historical figure, said: Ambient and place-oriented theater has always had a special attraction for me; Because in this way, the director moves away from the limited space of the stage frame and the four walls of the hall and seeks new experiences and different communication with the audience in a non-hall space.

He added: "Repeated visits to the Nagaristan Historical Museum in Tehran always brought me to the memory of the scholar of politics and literature, Mirza Abulqasem Qaim-maqam Farahani, and the story of his unjust death in this place." This space and the history hidden in it had occupied my mind and I felt that these walls, buildings, trees and garden space could each be the narrator of a part of a historical narrative.

Referring to the process of the formation of the play "Qaim Maqam Farahani", Salehpour said: these hidden concerns were formed in my mind and thoughts over time and by studying Qaem Maqam's letters, constructions and poems, and finally led to the writing of a play with the same theme. After that, with a lot of effort, the words made their way to the stage of the show so that a part of this historical narrative can be placed in front of the audience at the place of the accident.

This theater director stated that the art of drama is always connected with the re-creation of human life and stated: Theater is considered a lamp and a mirror; A lamp that gives light and a mirror that puts an image of life and human experience in front of us. Whenever we step on the stage of the theater, we are actually trying to introduce and show another human life, and the task of the theater is to create, recreate and narrate life again.

He continued: Art and literature can be an obstacle against forgetting and prevent important historical narratives from being silenced. The show "Qaim Maqam Farahani" is also an attempt to reread the life of a man who represents a valuable combination of taste, knowledge and politics in the history of Iran.

Salehpour also said about Farahani's Qaim-maqam character: Mirza Abul-Qasim Farahani's Qaim-maqam was martyred 191 years ago in this garden of Nagaristan; A personality who found a lasting place in one of the most difficult historical periods of Iran with his knowledge, attachment to the land and his reformist outlook.

Referring to the bitter fate of this historical figure, he reminded at the end: Darigh, who was the governor like many great people of history, was a victim of the tradition of elite killing, and at night, without bath or shroud, his body was taken to Shah Abd al-Azeem Hosni's tomb in Ray city and buried. The viceroy was a light that died in the night of his time, but the flame of his life and the light of his pen never went out and his name remained as a symbol of grace, greatness and thought in the history of Iran.

The play "Qaim Maqam Farahani" has been staged in Tehran's Nagaristan Garden since October 10.

Iraj Rad, Kazem Hajirazad, Asghar Hammet, Atesh Taghipour, Abolfazl Hamrah, Amir Molavi, Mohammad Reza Khosrovian, Elham Rezaei, Abolfazl Ashrab, Rahman Mohammadi, Morteza Deldadeh, Mohammad Hajmohammadi, Rashid Naqipour, Pouria Farji, Mohammad Alijani, Siavash Salehpour, Sadegh Kazemi and Alireza Qolizadeh make up the cast of this show.