Pari Saberi (born 1932 in Kerman) is a drama and theater director and Knight of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
She studied at Vaugirard Cinematography College which is one of the famous cinematographic higher education institutes in France. What follows is a quick chat with this great Iranian artist who has also been awarded the Avicenna Award from UNESCO:
How did you make it to the big stage?
I studied art in France. I also studied filmmaking which was unusually difficult. My first day of work as apprentice was shocking. They gave me a broom and asked me to clean up the studio. The intention was to help me learn how things work by first touching and cleaning them, equipment like projector, props, and so on.
I returned to Iran in 1963 and applied for a job at the Culture Ministry. The culture minister said cinema was not the right place for me; instead he advised me to work in theatre. It was hard to change my field but now that I look back I think I did the right thing to take his advice. My first theatre production was Night of the Hunchback by Farrokh Ghaffari (1964) which was roughly based on One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales.
The second work was The Brick and the Mirror, a movie by Ebrahim Golestan. After that I got so involved in theater that I never got the chance to play in any movie again.
My most recent productions are a mixture of theater and cinema. When I'm on stage I apply visual arts. I still long to make a feature film. I want to direct The Flying Shams, the vibrant story of Rumi's first encounter with his mentor Shams Tabrizi. I’m confident it has its own global audience.
What was your first stage production as director?
It was a family drama called “Korke Havich” with top actors such as Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Esmaeil Mehrabi and others. It went on stage at the Iran-France Cultural Society as we didn’t have any theater or playhouse at the time. Audiences were fascinated, including Jalal Ale Ahmad and Ebrahim Golestan. They wrote positive reviews. They were influential critics and their critical endorsement paved the way for my success in later stages.
I did direct and act in my next production which was The Seagull by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895. An incident at the time forced me to decide whether I wanted to be director or actress. A colleague of mine forced my actors not to play in it despite the fact that we had a schedule. Saeed Poursamimi and Hamid Samandarian helped me get through this nightmare. The show went on to a standing ovation. It even established Poursalimi’s acting career. I learned from the incident not to be afraid of taking risks and move forward come what may.
How do you compare today’s theater for women with the one in those years?
Because of cultural barriers it was very difficult for women to make it big on stage, but things changed gradually. No one took stage actresses and directors seriously. You had to prove yourself and show you had something interesting to say. Even my own colleagues would mock me for talking about Chekhov. Perhaps they didn’t like to see a woman directing them. It was hard but I managed to stay in the game. Even when some actors refused to show up for their performance, my shows went on. Things have become better for women, but the same cultural barriers still exist. We have powerful women directors and successful actresses.
How did Forough Farrokhzad play in one of your productions?
When I returned to Iran I wanted to produce Six Characters in Search of an Author, a 1921 Italian play by Luigi Pirandello. I was acquainted with Forough Farrokhzad and she said she wanted to play in it. I first thought it was a joke. After all, she was an influential poet and everybody knew him. Quite the contrary, nobody knew me. She however insisted to play and that’s how she created one of the best memories for me from those early years. She knew a lot about art and I only needed to make small gestures to help her act. She gave us an excellent performance. Of course, some critics lashed out at her for being on stage. She ignored them all. She even starred in The House Is Black, which is still one of best movies in the history of Iranian cinema.
After the revolution you went on to produce classical Iranian plays. Why did you make that choice?
I used to think only foreign plays were worthwhile for theatre. But as time went by I realized I also owed a lot to the Iranian art and culture. I wanted to pay my dues by introducing Iranian art to children. After the revolution we had no theater for six years. I spent a lot of time attending poetry reading and it was after listening to the poems of Mehdi Akhavan-Sales that I learned to use Iranian poetry and music in my works as well.
What was your first stage production after that?
-My first production was Me to the Garden of Gnosticism by contemporary poet Sohrab Sepehri. After that, a student of mine suggested I produce The Seven Cities of Love by classical poet Attar. The Cultural Heritage Organization gave us some space to practice and when the stage was built they let us perform there. I was involved in the whole process, from the design and pre-production stage, right through to the final performance.
Again it gathered large audiences, all while boosting my confidence to carry on. Other productions included The Book of Kings by Ferdowsi, Rostam and Sohrab, and the Flying Shams.
Have your works ever gone on stage abroad?
I have received invitations to work abroad but I prefer to stay and work here. Once I did go to India, Italy, France and other places to see if I could stage my productions there. Because of having no budget I couldn’t. I only managed to perform in India after receiving funds from former Tehran Mayor Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi.
You are one of the founders of the Molavi Hall. Tell us more about that.
Before the revolution, I came up with a proposal to build the place and everyone rejected it outright. I discussed the modern project in more details with the dean of Tehran University whom I knew from Paris. In the end, he agreed to help me build it. It was after construction of the Molavi Hall that they decided to establish the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Ferdowsi Hall as well.
How do you assess modern theatre in Iran?
As director you should have full control over your art, with an eye for beauty. You should know both philosophy and psychology to put yourself in the shoes of your characters. Your characters are like an iceberg with its tip out of water. You should delve into them to understand them, otherwise your works will end up average.
Any suggestion for young artists on how to make it to the big stage?
Work hard and get your work on stage by any means possible. Things will never be perfect. Every era has its own difficulties and problems. Never give up on your dreams. Don’t see art as a means to an end. If you are doing it for money or fame, don’t do it. Pay your dues to society.
Translation by Bobby Naderi