Ayna Ghotbi Yaghubi

Yerma inside me is written and directed by Setareh Tabrizi from Isfahan province. It is participated in Young theatre section of the festival. As we hear the name of play it is a person’s adaptation from Lorka’s play Yerma. It’s a performance without word combined with movement, dance and music. Yerma in Spanish means barren and in the play it’s the name of main character. Lorca’s Yerma is the story of a barren woman who commited crime because of her extreme interest for being mother. But Yerma of Setareh Tabrizi is different. There are 5 actors here who narrate the story of the director by their bodies and movement. Though this kind of performing is not practical without understanding Lorca’s story. The play starts with dancing of a woman and after that the actors present their own dance by music and they sometimes dance lonely or with the opposite partner. In fact these bodies try to show the suffering of a couple that can not bear a child. The stage is almost empty and the few accessories still show the play is based on actor’s bodies. This kind of theatre has a strong root. Theatre directors such as Grotowski, Meyerhold, Artaud emphasis on the bodies and movement during last century. They believe in the importance of body in communicating and avoid saying long dialogue and this is the difference of literature and theatre. There are also some modern theatre based on dance by Martha Graham and Ana Halperin. Though using dance and body in East theatre backs to an ancient tradition. Eastern theatre from India, Japan to Iran has a long history in using creative narration which depends on body. But the point is what are the personalities of the body that is going to work instead of words? It should be able to present the concept of author in the form of story or emotions. Designing of these movements should be able to convey the meaning. The body which is signifier should convey special signified to audience. These movements should be systematic and organic enough to present a cohesive concept. Tabrizi zadeh’s play is not based on this cohesion. The audience can not decode the meaning and in most of the scenes we are facing with aesthetics of body and movements. Although this aesthetics of movements is important in theatre as a visual art but if it is the only reason, the play will be as only a clip show. There some successful scenes like: the scene of Yerma and the man with a pillow and showing an erotic relation, or the scene which Yerma refuses illegal pregnancy or even the scenes of mourning. But the other parts are only based on aesthetics and the audience can not decode signifiers. The music also doesn’t have special meaning. It’s only the combinations of different genres which can amplify the emotions on stage. The lighting is not creative but the only creative part is using torch which is in harmony with the empty stage. The important point of this play is the attempt of actors in use their body, their flexibility and prepared bodies can make different pictures for us which is so positive in comparison with our present theatre that works only based on dialogue. This process is so hopeful.