Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Cinema and Theater, University of Art, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Art in general, and theater works in particular, is a venue for the manifestation of human life and related branches of knowledge, that provide a suitable material for interdisciplinary studies. On this basis, studying the relationship between these branches of science and art as well as their manifestation in art needs interdisciplinary studies. Tracing history in the works of art and the theatrical works by Bahram Beyzaei, as a good case in point, provides a suitable material for that purpose. This paper seeks to classify Beyzaei''s works in terms of concentration on history in a bid to shed light on his views vis-à-vis this issue. Yet more significantly, it will try to explain how this special view would contribute to the development of Beyzaei''s performing art.
To that end, through a library study and following an analytical-descriptive method, Beyzaei''s works are classified under three categories in terms of focus on history. Then, fake and doctored history on one side and traditional and genuine history on the other are studied in his works. That would aim to show the former serves an ideological tool in the hands of the strong to make subordinates submit.
The findings of this study indicate that Beyzaei''s characters are all critical of the authenticity and accuracy of historical references and from this standpoint his views are close to ‘neohistoricists''. Therefore, Beyzaei may be described as a fully post-modernist playwright.
In response to the second question, we can see that although a sort of philosophy of history may be detected in Beyzaei''s works, he goes beyond philosophical analysis and concentrates his views on the creation of drama. In other words, the essence of drama creation in Beyzaei''s works raises doubts about the historical discourse and gives rise to controversy in distinguishing genuine history from fake history.
Therefore, Beyzaei''s works are all a kind of attempt to uncover the reality. By referring to the findings of the first question and the post-modernist fact that there is no ultimate reality, or at least it is not accessible, we are headed towards the tragic aspect of such challenge in Beyzaei''s works.