Mehr Theatre Group (Iran (Islamic Republic of)) - Ivanov
What better way to represent the depressing inertia of Chekhov’s antihero Ivanov than by an
enormous couch with comfortable cushions? For the better part of the performance Ivanov sits, no,
slouches there, an indolent layabout who has given up caring a rap about his surroundings, his wife,
her mortal illness or his own botched life.
That is how director Amir Reza Hoohestani (1978) sees Ivanov, and he draws a parallel with the
disappointed people of Iran, who took to the streets in 2009, even before the Arab Spring reared its
head, to protest against the electoral fraud and for more democracy, more social justice and more
rights for women. Hopes ran high during the Green Revolution, but in the end the insurgents were
left empty-handed. Just like the destitute landowner Ivanov in Chekhov’s first play, from 1887, the
Iranians, according to Hoohestani, let themselves be beaten down by a lack of future prospects.
And thus the Ivanov from the company from Teheran hardly leaves his place on the couch – which
is easily converted into a sofa bed – from where he talks to the people around him in curt, direct
words. Only Sasha, his neighbour’s daughter who falls madly in love with him, won’t resign herself
to the status quo and continues to harbour a spark of resistance and hope. She stands for all of the
women who marched
for freedom.
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