Hossein Mosafer Astaneh on "Resurrection of Love"
Iran Theater- The musical show "Resurrection of Love" is at out of competition section of the 42nd Fadjr International Theater Festival. Hossein Mosafer Astaneh said the story begins with the scene of Rumi's dying, but he comes back to life.
"Resurrection of Love" deals with periods of Rumi's life, from childhood to love to perfection and death and resurrection, It’s written by acclaimed playwright Mohammad Rahmanian and directed by Hossein Mosafer Astaneh.
In response to which phase of Rumi's life was chosen to be shown in this drama, the director said: “Our play begins with the dying scene of Rumi and the curtain goes away while the character of Death is standing on Rumi's bed. What we show in "Resurrection of Love" is that Rumi comes back to life after the death.”
He went on to say:” The audience observes: the prayers of the disciples for the healing of Rumi, Rumi in his childhood when the Mongols attacked, when the Mongols threw the scientists into the sea, and when Rumi receives a gift from Attar of Nishapur because Attar of Nishapur saw a bright future in the face of the Rumi. He gives him one of his most important book, Asrār-Nāma. At another point, we see the Mongols attack the city and kill the people, and in the chaos of those attacks, Rumi meets and marries Gevherkhatun, the daughter of Khwaja Lalai of Samarkand. Then Rumi goes through a boring period and he was not satisfied with teaching but did it. During this period, he met Shams-e Tabrizi. And they have a conversation, we witness it with body language and in a symbolic way in the play. Rumi becomes a disciple of Shams and finds him much superior to himself.”
Hossein Mosafer Astaneh explained more that when the disciples see Rumi's fascination with Shams-e-Tabrizi, they get jealous and think Shams has bewitched Rumi. They pressure Shams-e-Tabrizi to leave the city. and Rumi becomes sick and desolate, and whatever the students do is useless. The disciples search the mountains and the plains and find Shams and bring him back to Rumi.
Astaneh clarified that the musical show is non-verbal :"Resurrection of Love is a work without words based on music and chorography. Nader Rajabpour did chorography for all of the scenes and Saeed Zehni composed the music.”
The play is written by a veteran stage and cinema director and playwright, Mohammad Rahmanian.
The director said about the process of writing the play: "In 2005-2006, a show was supposed to be made on the occasion of the 1000th of Rumi's birthday, and Mohammad Rahmanian received an offer from UNESCO. Then UNESCO offered me to direct the play. I said to them Mohammad Rahmanian is better than me. But Rahmanian wrote the play with me in his mind. After talking with him, we did theater rehearsals. So we previously made it in 2006 with commissioned by UNESCO on the occasion of Molana Rumi's 1000th birthday. “
