Fall, get up, walk... Repeat.
It’s the story of one man’s battle against the masses. Coriolanus, a Roman king, is at war with his people, who want him out of power. The king continuously walks on a treadmill, and refuses to get off it or meet his subjects. They, in turn, heckle him till he stumbles off the device. But each time he trips, he manages to get back on his feet and to his “throne”.
Over four centuries after it was written, the Shakespearean tragedy
We have been using his works to reflect on contemporary politics, economics and other social realities. The concepts in Shakespeare’s plays are global. The performance can take different forms. The playwright lets us do that; his works are so open.
Your A Midsummer Night’s Dream was so vibrant... The actors were acrobatic and the performance itself so energetic.
While designing the performance, the first thing that came to my mind was how to make something new, how to design the performance in a way which nobody has done before. Magic is already a concept in Shakespeare’s play. So, it starts with magic. Since A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a comedy, I was concerned with the form.
The play also talks about how people are forced to not love. We see that happening in our country. So that was also a concern.
The maverick musician Ali Rezania, whom you collaborated with for Coriolanus , stunned us by helming more than half a dozen instruments. Why is music so important for you?
Besides the composing, the behaviour and the act of the musician are important as well. That’s why I put him in front of the audience, so that they could choose to watch the play or the musician.
What’s the deeper significance of the treadmill metaphor in Coriolanus ?
The idea of the treadmill came from the playwright himself. We need the protagonist to be moving, but, at the same time, he is also fixed to a spot. In Coriolanus, the masses and the government ally and stop him from moving. He is trying but he cannot move forward. That’s the treadmill metaphor.
Is Coriolanus more of a victim?
Because it is a tragedy, Coriolanus definitely is a victim. A person cannot be just black or white.
Could you elaborate a little more on your process?
My social conscience prompts me to do something. When I have a script, I try to design forms of performance based on it. We rehearse and rehearse till it leads to the performance. We rehearsed Coriolanus for 18 months before it was performed. The other actors in the play are students from my workshop.
Your plays are extremely physical, but, at the same time, your set is minimalistic.
In my opinion, acting is about imagination, speech, form and body; we need all these to be perfect. As a director and stage designer, I want the stage choreography to be dynamic with people’s movements and acting. We also like to leave some elements to the audience’s imagination.
As the only independent theatre company in Iran, what are your daily struggles?
We conduct a lot of workshops. We earn money by selling tickets. As for our relationship with the government, we try every way. We fight to convince them that they should let us do our job.
How does theatre censorship work in Iran?
There are restrictions when it comes to costumes. We cannot have half-naked actors on stage. The hair of the women actors should not be seen. We are required to perform the play before a supervising committee before it’s taken to the stage. If the committee points out mistakes, we should correct them. Whether you work with money provided by the government or are an independent group like us, the committee will supervise the performance.
As an artiste, how do you absorb what is going on in your country?
Our country is filled with incidents and accidents. Every morning, we wake up and check our phones for the news. We tend to be preoccupied by the events happening in our country. Unintentionally, we become political persons. We don’t want it. But, we become involved .
Parshathy J Nath is a theatre artiste and writer based out of Thrissur