Reflections on “Unreal Documentary Theater” Today / Documenting History Now

Theater News Base: Documentary theater in Iran has gone nowhere most of the time; Because we usually encounter non-dramatic and unrealistic cuts from the past that have passed the multi-layer censorship filter. The audience is not confronted with the “real” in such works; Rather, they are confronted with the favored history of the “great other” and the “cultural directors.” The problem is that the origins of documentary theater are not taken into account, and writers of this style of theater are not considered these days. The origins of the documentary theater go back to Erwin Piscator and Peter Weiss, both of whom worked in critical German theater, whose ideas are empty in today’s Iranian theater. Piscator paid attention to the reality of society and wanted the spectators to stay away from the propaganda of the ideological apparatus of the state and to watch the realities behind the scenes; So for this purpose he used “film” in theater performances. He used newspapers and real documents to write his plays to stage completely realistic performances.

By writing an article entitled The 14 Principles of Documentary Theater in 1917, Weiss well defined the boundaries of documentary theater. He points out that historical plays will not be categorized as documentaries. The documentary should be based on defensible documents and there is no place to change historical events. “The truth will never escape us,” Walter Benjamin believed. The work of a documentary theater writer becomes more difficult here; Because it has to do extensive research on the subject matter to clarify the facts behind the scenes. Documentary theater should not be subjugated by politics, and the artist needs to pay special attention to documenting history now.

Find the face of the main issue

Concepts such as “framing” and “narrative” are very useful in understanding documentary theater, and with their help, one can put an end to the useless debates about documentary theater in Iran in recent years. Culture is the realm of power, and those with economic power can produce cultural products, and those with little financial ability will be the only consumers. This is where most documentaries in Iran benefit the upper urban upper class more than the lower classes.

The author of a documentary theater can easily analyze and critique social and economic relations in his work; It is enough to choose the appropriate “framing” and “narration”. The “framing” of the work should be such that the “problem form” of the story to be “narrated” is well revealed.

If we look at the events of 9/11 in the United States, it is clear that politicians and the media lied to the horns and wiped out the main issue to make bin Laden an “evil demon.” They were looking for a good excuse to launch a military attack on the Middle East, and they had to justify it, not to mention their own military bases in the region.

“When we put a frame around an event like 9/11, we allow certain information to be seen, and at the same time, information,” writes Michael Ryan in An Introduction to Literary, Film, and Culture Criticism in the Cultural Studies section. “We will ignore those who are out of the frame.” The job of documentary theater is to portray the hidden truths of the story, and it must do so with credible documents; So it is possible that a political tribunal – such as the tribunal of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh – or historical interviews – such as George W. Bush’s defense of the invasion of Iraq – was turned into a documentary theater. In directing a documentary, the director can also analyze the situation for the audience, and for this purpose, he can make a contemporary adaptation of the performance style of “Erwin Piscator” and “Bertolt Brecht”. By “distancing” and having “episodic” plays, the director can prevent the audience from becoming emotional and interpret the hidden events well.

Basically, one of the important features of documentary theater is the analysis and interpretation of historical events. Note that the critical date is the same as the current date. If the authors do not pay attention to the current history and social relations of the day, they will do something useless and formalistic that will have no effect on the audience; Even if the past is portrayed, it must be related to the daily life of today. How the story is “narrated” is very important; Because if we try from the very beginning to judge everything and summon black and white characters in front of the audience, we are far from dramatic. You need to choose the right place to start the show, which means using the “dramatic hook”. There is nothing wrong with spectators getting excited about seeing a documentary theater, as long as we do not touch on historical events.

Avoid melodrama

Ehsan Zivarlam, one of the well-known critics of today’s theater, has spoken of the “melodrama” of documentaries in Iran, which means that directors choose pieces of reality, and perform them in a sentimental way so that they can only evoke the emotions of the audience. . Documentary theater has the potential to dramatize; But not in order to stabilize the moral status, economic and romantic relations, children’s games now. The works of “Ivory Lily” – such as “Bread Committee” – and “Sanaz Bayan” – such as “Pinkish Blue” – are empty of thought and full of emotions. They try to make the audience cry in the hall, which is outside the scope of the documentary theater.

There is a different situation in the works of “Yousef Bapiri” and “Mohammad Monem” which is influenced by “Amir Reza Kouhestani” who have also expressed this issue. They pay attention to the narrative and performance form of a historical event, which has been successful in some performances; But the Iranian people have nothing to do with the present and present history. We also have the “Exit” theater group, whose members are influenced by the documentaries “Saeed Sultanpour” and “Mohsen Yalfani”. Sultanpour paid special attention to the workers present in industrial factories – such as “Akbar Agha Kargar Iran Nacional” – and of course sometimes went to the past. The important point is that his works were highly concrete and critical, and were well-nourished from the present history. It is true that in some plays the author deals with the past; But the main purpose was to critique the situation and the contemporary society itself.

In search of the right form

Specific concepts were expressed in this article, which are: (1) avoiding “melodrama” and paying attention to “realism”, (2) extensive research on the subject of documentary play, (3) framing correctly so that the main issue is clear to the audience Be; (4) choosing an appropriate narrative that accompanies the viewer with the work and (5) not changing historical events. It is suggested that documentary theater writers study the works of Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, and Peter Weiss to better understand the form and content of this type of theater.