Mohammad Sadegh Malek's note on autumn sonata, Performed by Jalal Tehrani

Jalal’s encounter with autumn sonata by Bergman is a theatrical encounter. Jalal Tehrani knows the medium of theater very well and of course completely unique and he always does a magical job portraying his scripts on the scene. A magic made of knowledge and intellection without any excitement, exaggeration or abuse of the audience’s feelings. The obsession in design and the extreme amount of attention in the performance and constantly reminding about the depth… but this time Tehrani and his group gave life to another magical performance with a script made by the great Bergman. Tehrani has truly and deeply understood the text in an astonishingly way maybe even equal to how Bergman understands the world of performing, art, particular human relationships, musicians and especially piano players. In this performance everything has gotten minimal into ((faces)). Mother, is not a mother she’s just the face of a mother and not even a woman she is just the face of a woman. They are not a professional musician they’re just the face of a professional musician. Mother is an actress and the actress Is Golchehre Sajadie. The daughter isn’t a daughter either they’re just face of a girl. Face of the daughter of the face of the mother. The girl isn’t a piano player either, face of a piano player is not as professional as the face of the mother. Face of the daughter, is an actress and the actress is Bahare Rahnama. Piano isn’t a piano either its just the face of a piano, some horizontal and some vertical lines each one facing the other one from both sides of the stage. The encounter of both faces of the piano and both faces of the musicians. Both women. Both faces. Both actresses showing the faces of their roles in the encounter of Jalal Tehrani with autumn sonata. The physique of the actresses is precisely suitable for their roles and we can say the same thing for their voices. But their bodies are not really appropriate for the performance and this fact gives life to the idea of focusing on the faces. And this interesting idea is used correctly and accurately throughout the whole show. Even in the speaking pattern of the actors there are sudden interruptions to remind the audience of the mistakes that the actors do while training backstage. And actresses play this simple yet really hard idea in a very good way.

A precise, effective performance without being sentimental but very emotional at the same time which have to be performed so freely that sometimes it even looks discordant. Like pieces of Chopin’s piano masterpieces, mise en scene is the precise compositions of the actors’ behavior, constricted body forms, light, shadows and half shadows which are the results of this clever composition. For example, at some point in the show shadows of the stools and the faces of the pianos form two hands that are reaching each other. Like two people have opened their arms to each other but no matter how hard they try the hands won’t reach each other overall watching Jalal Tehrani’s encounter with autumn sonata by Bergman is a both charming and informative experience with the taste of modern theater.

Mohammad Sadegh Malek

2018/4/7