An analysis of the show “The Last Evening” written and directed by Masoud Al-Karfib / The conflict between love and power, from language to expression

Charso Press: The show “The Last Supper” is considered a step forward in the continuation of the previous works of Dr. I still have a good memory of his direction in the show “Mephisto” as well as his good acting in the show “Normal Routine” remain in the memories. Now, with “The Last Supper”, the desire goes to a sensitive topic, which is a kind of risk in directing, because approaching the chosen topic can turn the drama into a simple historical report or into an ideological and theological confrontation of religions. But “The Last Supper” goes well through these confrontations and simplistic historical reports and tries to reach a form of narration about the subject without claiming to innovate the subject of the show. A form in which, on the one hand, it shapes the drama in a historical context (a context from which it is usually difficult to present an attractive drama) and on the other hand, it provides the possibility of reaching a form of narration on the stage that can solve one of the basic problems. to solve Iran’s theater today; The problem of turning drama into theater and not staying at the text level.

It seems that Dr. Al-Karfis has succeeded in inventing such a form on the stage with an aesthetic initiative, by choosing the attractive operetta form to perform the drama on the stage. Operetta, which can be considered a middle way for opera on the one hand (in which only music, writing and singing is responsible for the performance of the narrative) and only the expression of dialogues on the other hand (in which only the recitation of the text of the play is the basis of the narration and acting) A combination of dialogue, music and reading is achieved that adds to the charm of a stage performance and succeeds in transforming the text into the stage, or transforming the drama into theater..

With such a narrative form, The Last Supper both narrates a good text and stages a good performance of this text, which, apart from the subject and the written text, also achieves a suitable visual-auditory stage performance, and because in the narrative form of the operetta, the monologue Especially the solo singing of a woman is of serious and fundamental importance, the artist has successfully crossed this obstacle and in several appropriate places, with the solo singing of a woman’s voice, gives musical charm and dramatic beauty to a stage performance..

The actors, who are made up of two parts, amateur and professional, are in harmony with each other. Rahim Noroozi has mastered the dialogues as well as the stage components and has turned them into a part of his game, in other words, a part of his presence on the stage.. This dominant acting on the stage is also in harmony with the way he dresses on the stage because the people on the stage live in ancient times and wear ancient Roman clothing (or a symbol of that clothing); Norouzi, however, appears on the stage in contemporary clothes, so that with this arrangement, the director can make his work appear trans-modern and contemporary, which also succeeds in representing this idea.. In such a situation, Nowrozi’s acting prevents the contrast of the covers from appearing inconsistent, and this time shift in the narrative becomes acceptable with Norozi’s good and correct acting. Next to him, the amateur or novice professional actors also shined well and did not appear in emotional forms that were sometimes heavy and simple, and managed to dominate the stage and role, but to fix some of their acting defects, which sometimes led to the loss of the show’s rhythm, only with more practice. It becomes possible. Along with the actors of the show, Kazem Balochi has both a sensitive role and a sensitive performance. Balochi is one of the veterans of theater, cinema and television, whose presence and face in any role can bring life to any character, and for this reason, he may no longer need additional design in acting, but it seems that Balochi is well suited to this acting charisma. does not use; Including in this show. An actor whose normal voice and natural look is a charismatic possibility and with this possibility he can easily turn any type into a character, when he tries to increase this possibility by making additional voices or putting pressure on the voice while acting, he unconsciously gets the opposite result. And without wanting or knowing, it turns a character into a type. Because adding to this charismatic possibility is ignoring this possibility in acting and creating tension in the role, including in parts of the performance of the ruling role in the Last Supper show, where Balochi prevents the emergence of charismatic by putting undue pressure on words. It becomes its own voice and face. If this damage was removed (which is the duty of the director, the duty of the actor and above all, the duty of the dramaturg), one of Kazem Balochi’s lasting plays would be created on the Iranian theater stage. As this role, even with this small damage in acting, is one of the good plays these days without good acting in Iranian theater..

The theme of the show, of course, needs to be examined separately. Today’s need of Iran and the need of the human world to review its past performance, especially from a religious perspective, is an important and fundamental need. What is the structure of the re-examination of religious myths that occupy a large part of the mental, psychological and social and now political life of Iran and the world? How was he born? What path has it taken until today? And what is today’s relationship with these myths? Why did the rituals that started with the slogan of love reach violence and hatred? Why did they, who were formed in opposition to the political powers of the time to reduce the volume of their violence, become the perpetrators of violence? Why are the rituals that were associated with good poetry and beautiful sounds and the musical hymn of nature at the time of their birth, now they have become one of the opponents of these beautiful sounds? When we hear the final dialogue of Hakim with his wife in this show (which unfortunately is only heard but not played), we find the answer to these questions to some extent. Where love is contrasted with power and it shows that it is love that wins because love is stronger than power and I wish the show “The Last Supper” tried more to show this truth than to express it and of course We know that “showing” a “truth” and a ““Speaking” is a very difficult task; Much harder than “speaking” that “truth” and that “speech”. Niazi, the lack of which is one of the serious harms of theater in Iran today.