I don’t know how to fight under the blanket!

Charso Press: This theater director, who staged his play in Iranshahr Theater, spoke about the necessity of performing theater and expressed his regret for the closure of the university theater festival. At the same time, he expressed his pleasure that families come to watch his show.

Mahmoudi said about the performance of the theater in the current situation and considering some attitudes regarding the closure of the theater: I respect the opinions of all my friends and colleagues. I also see problems and ambivalences and I am sad about society’s problems, but everything has a way and I don’t allow others to make decisions for me, just as I don’t allow myself to make decisions for others. During this time when many theater activists did not work, someone asked them how they pay the rent of their house.

He emphasized: We also have criticisms of many situations, but the way is not to remove ourselves and get lost behind cyberspace. I hope that the friends who only raise things in the virtual space, will act on one percent of their words. We must accept that everyone has a method. If anyone takes his own path with faith, I personally respect him, but the problem is that I don’t see faith behind many words.

Emphasizing the necessity of continuing theater performance in any situation, he noted: From the first day, I said that we should keep the theater alive, because by removing ourselves, our presence in society and our demands will also be removed, and I don’t want that. On the other hand, I believe that we did not come to this life where everything is easy for us, but you have to fight from the beginning and this process is always going on.

This director expressed regret about the current state of the theater and continued: First, we have to accept that our theater is dead, and in the next stage, we have to revive it, and in the next stages, we have to think of ways to solve its other problems. We must not forget that this theater is a legacy that has come to us from the past. Great artists kept this art alive in the worst and most difficult conditions and brought it to us, and now we are destroying it ourselves.

Mahmoudi, who has been one of the winners of the student festival in the past years, regretted the closure of the festival and reminded: They used to criticize the festival, but what happened when it was removed?! What pain was cured by university theater? Our problems are not one or two. Imagine a house where everything is right and only the roof is leaking, an isogam is enough to repair such a house, but when there is no house at all, what are we fighting about.

This writer, who paid attention to the story of “Pinocchio” in his two previous plays “Pinocchio” and “Geppetto”, in the continuation of this conversation about dealing with this story, he said: “Pinocchio” is my favorite story and by performing the play “Male Cat and “Sly Fox” the trilogy I had in mind from this story ends. The narratives we have in all three plays, despite their independence, are directly related to the story of “Pinocchio”.

Mahmoudi added: On the other hand, I am interested in a kind of fantasy that attracts both adult and teenage audiences. Of course, in the last few years, animations have been made that both children, teenagers and adults have their own understanding and perception of it, and all age groups are viewers, especially since today’s children are very different from our childhood and tools such as the Internet And virtual space plays an important role in creating this difference.

Although he considers adults to be the audience of his show, at the same time, he explained: In the beginning, there were more adult audiences, but little by little, teenagers and children were also added because the genre of the work is such that it involves all age groups, and during this time, I have seen that When families come to watch this show, both parents and kids can relate to the work. Of course, this is completely conscious, and in the rehearsals, I invited the child audience to find out what kind of connection they have with the show.

Expressing his satisfaction with the audience’s response to his show, he added: A large part of our audience are students who know me from the student festival. Especially on the days when we have half-price student tickets, this welcome is even greater.

Mahmoudi, who is writing the script for a mini-series these days, emphasized: I carry out all my work personally and everything is transparent about me. During this time, I have seen that some people have asked how I perform a show every year. In response to these friends, I have to say that I do not wait for an invitation. I practice my act while my friends are nagging. I have 10 years of university work background and my father is a simple farmer in the north of the country and now I am surprised to see that some people attribute a management position to my father and say that I work with his rent!

He also explained about his interest in acting: everything I have is from the theater, but from the beginning I was thinking about the image, but I believe that one should go up step by step. At the same time as a director in the theater, I also went behind the scenes of video work and took on different responsibilities. My favorite type of fantasy works better in the picture because we don’t have the necessary facilities for it in the theater. On the other hand, today’s theater audience sees shows from around the world. An audience who has access to Telegram, Instagram and WhatsApp is aware of the world’s theater and it is strange that some of us think that the audience is not aware of the events of the day and then we say why the audience does not come to see our theaters.

The show “Male Cat and Sly Fox” is on stage until May 29 at 18:30 in the year of Nazerzadeh Kermani Tamashakhane Iranshahr.

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