The Story: Soheil Parsa on the season at Modern Times

The Lesson and Forgiveness
Organizing a year
by Soheil Parsa

This year I will work on two shows with Modern Times: ‘The Lesson’, by Eugène Ionesco, and a new creation called ‘Forgiveness’, which is in its second phase of development.

I’ve had a long history with ‘The Lesson’. I remember reading it for the first time in Farsi in Tehran back in the 70s, shortly before the Revolution. The next time would be in English, in preparation to direct Ionesco’s ‘The Chairs’ in 2001 in Toronto. When I stumbled upon the play again in 2010, I decided that I had to direct it. 

I guess my fascination with the play is two-fold. To begin with, the concept of dictatorship in the ‘The Lesson’ is familiar to me. I experienced it first-hand in Iran, and my attempt to understand that experience is one of the reasons that I choose the type of material Modern Times does. Secondly, ‘The Lesson’ speaks to ideologies, which are present around the world. For Ionesco, it’s ideology of language: empty slogans that seem so beautiful at first, but which eventually kill; the Professor uses language as a weapon against the student. I have witnessed this in many venues, Canada as well: when the truth crumbles, language can be used to cajole, intimidate and pacify.

The great challenge for us has been to understand and embrace the metaphors and archetypes behind the text...

As I am writing this, I am in the middle of directing the first workshop for the production this November 2012, starring David Ferry, Michelle Monteith and Costa Tovarnisky. The great challenge for us has been to understand and embrace the metaphors and archetypes behind the text without losing the specificity of the language and characterization. We’re going back and forth trying to find the right approach. I know we’ll get it. The work reminds me you can’t take anything for granted in theatre.

Farbridge

As soon ‘The Lesson’ is over, I’m going back to thinking about ‘Forgiveness’, a play that’s been on the backburner for quite some time at Modern Times. The idea for ‘Forgiveness’ began in 2009 when I was in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina with co-artistic director Peter Farbridge. We had climbed up the side of some hills that overlooked the city, which for centuries has been divided by the Neretva River into Bosniak Muslim and Croat enclaves. As we walked along a dusty gravel road we bumped into a tour guide, Ibraham, who was a bit curious about us, and so we struck up a conversation. Before too long, we got to talking about the war, 10 years after, and Ibraham pointed across the other side of town and showed us where the man who killed his father was living. I asked him how he felt about that. To my amazement, he said that he had completely forgiven him. We believed him. This got us thinking about the nature of forgiveness, how it works exactly. Peter and I began to dream about doing a show about the personal and geo-political role of forgiveness. 

This past August we were in Denmark collaborating with the Danish dance company Don*Gnu on the second workshop of the piece. We spent a week together, 2 actors, 2 dancers, a dramaturge and our sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne. The workshop reminded me how powerful the sound can be as a tool to inspire creativity in rehearsals. 

It’s still early going in the development process but it’s becoming clear that the relationship of the performers to each other on stage is key to getting to the structure. The more time we spend together, the more deeper we travel into the theme. We’re looking forward to inviting the 2 Danish dancers (Jannik Nielsen and Kristoffer Pedersen) along with our dramaturg (Barbara Simonsen) to Canada in the spring of 2013. 

The company website.