At first glance, a play featuring six women performing surreal modern dances while wearing colorful tents might not appear to be an overtly political statement.
Indeed, for the casual viewer, the frantic and energetic performances in “Letters from Tentland: Return to Sender look less like a catalyst for heated discourse and more like an abstract piece of post-modern theatre.
But when the performers turn out to be six Iranian exiles living in Germany, the political overtones take on a new significance – at least in the eyes of headline-hungry journalists.
Indeed, many critics and spectators have characterized the performance, which plays in Cairo tonight at the Gomhuria Theater, as a statement on women’s rights in Muslim communities, both in Iran and across the Muslim word.
“Some people think that women in tents is a statement about the higab (the headscarf) It’s not. It’s about the universal theme of dislocation, said performer Javeh Asefdjah, during a seafood meal with some of her cast mates in Alexandria on Saturday.
The political cloud surrounding the work was also kicked up by rumors that Iranian government officials shut down performances of the play’s prequel a couple of years ago – another false rumor, according to the performers.
But with so much ink flowing around the show (which is directed by German choreographer Helena Waldmann) and given the increased rhetorical sparring between Iran and the US, it might be easy to forget about the performance itself.
Thankfully, the hour-long show is a feast of color, motion and emotional fury. Stacked with eye-catching, gravity-defying spins, stunning visuals and soundtracked by eerie, Iranian drumming, the performance is a hallucinatory voyage that blurs the line between play, performance art and experimental dance.
“For every one of us, the piece is something different, explained actor Pujeh Taghdisi, adding that the play is a way for her to explore her cultural duality.
“For me, it’s about being mobile. You have no roots and you can be blown anywhere by the wind. But on the other hand, you learn to adapt, to become mobile.
The show begins with one black tent, which then multiplies into six colorful tents and leads to the stage action. Standing in stark contrast to the darkened stage, the tents appear as an act of defiance against the bleak surroundings.
“The black tent at the beginning is like a birth, added performer Sanam Afrashteh, saying the tents represent the cultural isolation of an immigrant living in a new country.
“For us, that’s where the story starts. From that point, we create our own stories, she said, noting a range of emotions like pain, curiosity, strength, growth and loss are all played out on the stage.
The night before our interview, the women performed their swirling dances in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, who received the play with rapturous applause and a standing ovation.
The show ended with an invite by the performers to female audience members to come backstage for tea and talk – a tradition which the actors say leads to some very interesting discussions.
(The actors say that at other performances, men are invited backstage.)
After the performance in Alexandria, Shahisavandi says that the women understood immediately the themes of isolation and redemption.
“The reactions are always very different in every city, says actor Niloufar Shahisavandi, noting that the group just performed in Nairobi and is planning a possible excursion to India later this year.
“For us, living as foreigners in exile, the main topic is who are you, where do you come from, and when are you going back? These are the questions we deal with in this performance.
Putting it simply, Afrashteh adds that “those who belong nowhere belong everywhere.
“Letters from Tentland: Return to Sender Gomhuria TheaterGomhirya Street, near Abdeen Street.8 pm
