Get to know Iran by “No Prior Appointment”, not “the Holy Spider”

Reza Saberi is one of the experienced of the theater. He has been performing in Mashhad for more than 50 years and is a veteran teacher for the city’s young actors.

 Boraq Hamim news website , Saberi has recently broken the lock of the Mashhad theater and staged the play “Behind the Old Slaughterhouse Wall” after a long break due to the corona outbreak in Mashhad.

This play, written and directed by myself, has been on stage in the main hall of Mashhad Theater since 10 June and will continue until 10 July. This play is about a cartoon and, as always, I have staged it with young actors and, of course, some old actors. Because the theater was closed for two or three years due to the corona, many have mentally distanced themselves from the theater, and some still fear the closed space due to the corona. The next issue is the ticket price. People’s hands are narrow due to the high prices, and tickets may be expensive for some and theater may no longer be a priority for them; So the show behind the old slaughterhouse wall has not yet found itself as much as I can imagine, but it is getting better every day. I hope that by the end of the play, as the theaters say, we will have a year full of plays and the theater cycle in Mashhad will start after a few years of closure. Currently, about 15 different theaters are operating in Mashhad, and this in itself is a place of hope.

Behrouz Shoaib, like his previous films, has honestly been able to make a good film. Without a prior appointment, it has a new and human look, and at a time when, unfortunately, films such as The Holy Spider are being made, such films must be made in order for the real Iranian film to be known and show itself. I think the sacred spider is unfortunate. This happened a few years ago and it was made in the form of different genres of that film, but this film was made with a look that is unfortunate and for the credibility of the Iranian society, such films are ugly and disgusting.

The story of my invitation to the film without a prior appointment is very interesting. Behrouz Shoaib and I knew each other from afar and we knew each other. I had seen his films and I think he is a first-rate filmmaker. When Shoaib invited me to the hotel for this film, we were both shocked to see each other. It was natural to stare at each other after years of seeing each other. I told him I could read the script first, and he agreed. I read the script and I liked it. My role was complementary, but it was very active and significant, which I liked, although I spent an hour and a half under makeup for this role each time. Working with a young team without a prior appointment was a wonderful experience for me.

Hamed Behdad was a young man who came to Mashhad from Neishabour and attended my acting classes. Two or three years passed and I prepared the ground for him to play in several plays. He was a love of cinema. One day his mother called and said that Hamed would love to be an actor and kept telling me that he just wanted to be a movie actor. Behdad’s main goal was cinema and he accepted theater because it opened the way for him in cinema. The child was alive and I introduced him to Master Samandarian’s acting class in Tehran. He started himself and played some outstanding works and became famous, which I think was his right. Behdad’s character in this film is similar to the time when he was my student, but a few years older.

Why, after 50 years in the theater, do you still prefer to work with young people?
My biggest concern in theater is young people. Every time I did something and had a show, I first thought about the buds. The stage design behind the old wall of the slaughterhouse, which is now on stage, was created for me by Maryam Mahgoli, a 30-year-old young woman who studied design. I can boldly say that this stage design is one of the most brilliant designs of the last two decades. In short, young people have been present in all the theaters I have worked in and the plays that have been presented at festivals, and after that, everything I do in the theater is with young people.

Do you not regret that your main focus has been on theater for decades and you did not like to spend this time in the cinema, for example?
You asked a strange question. Honestly, when I was young, my love was cinema and I do not know how I was drawn to the theater. However, I was also very active in cinema and played the lead role in many films. My first job was with Khosrow Sinai and he always said do not leave the cinema, because you have a good face for cinema.
Financially, if I had chosen cinema, I would have been better off than I am in the theater. The theater requires more effort financially and does not have a good income. In the cinema, salaries start from 300 to 400 million tomans and reach several billion, but in the theater there is no news about this money and maybe the salaries will reach 50 million tomans. If I went to the cinema, I would not be worried about finances these days. Sorry is not a nice word. It would have been better if I could, because I had the capacity for cinema.

How effective is luck in discovering the talent of young people?
In the minds of young people, it seems that they should have a chance, but this is not the case. In my opinion, anyone who wants to enter the theater and cinema should be a handful. If he wants to enter the theater, he must have the right idea and goal, because one cannot work without a goal. In cinema, there are elements that an actor must have and it has nothing to do with luck. He must have a good stature and expression. In the theater, the face may not be as important as the cinema, but the actor must have the right expression and stage behaviors. These are the decisive elements, not the luck. Interest, talent, knowledge and purpose are the most important of all.

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Source: Jam Jam