On April 6th 1992 a raid on the Iranian Embassy in Canberra was staged in response to the reported hundreds of killings of the Mujahidin freedom fighters. Those who participated in the event were labelled terrorists and faced the danger of being deported back to the very country they despised simply because officials failed to understand the cause for these protestor’s passionate actions.
The MeK is an organization for the liberation of Iran, working towards overthrowing Ayotollah Khmeini’s (Iranian religious leader, scholar, politician, and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution) and replacing him with their own secular government system. The MeK is the dominant member of the political Coalition of Iranian opposition groups known as the national council of Resistance in Iran and considers itself to be a government in exile. The organization in run by a woman named Maryam Rajavi and her husband and their objective is to create a secularist government which supports gender equality, political pluralism and the separation of church and state. These aspirations all deemed illegal in the current regime, the punishment being death if one was to be found being associated with any part of what the MeK stands for.
On April 6th 1992 there was a delinquent impression of those who protested against the murders of these people in their homeland from the Autralian community because they could not comprehension or understand the situation, therefore labelling the protest an act of terrorism.
Our play exemplifies the predicament and hardship these refugees faced in order to come to Australia, the protest at the Iranian Embassy and the trial of those accused of terrorism and the destitution of their homeland as portrayed in A Beautiful Life.
A Beautiful Life like our play conveys the ideas of prejudice, injustice and brutality through a variety of dramatic forms and techniques, one of these techniques being the language barriers between Hamid and Jhila, Stephanie and Brendan and the Australian public. Hamid and Jhila’s inability to speak Fluent English causes a barrier between themselves and the Australia public. Being unable to articulate themselves causes them turmoil as they are unable to justify themselves and help others to understand their actions when they are arrested for displaying acts of terrorism. An example of this is in Scene 2 of our play, Hamid uses the words ‘madness’ when he means anger, which causes Brendan to think he is insane. Another example in the same scene also shows two Australian’s in Iran who are unable to effectively communicate with some Iranian Guards. They say “We cant understand you, speak English please”. As a result of this Language barrier the two Australian’s are Arrested and taken for questioning. This technique displays the virtuality of language to the play. It conveys the many problems and misinterpretations such a language barrier may cause, and hence lead to creating prejudice. In comparison to this we have Amir who comes from both worlds and is the narrator of the story. He gives us insight into both societies and is a bridge between the two worlds. A deliberate technique the composers have used to convey both sides of the story in way audiences can understand and empathise with.
Transformational acting is a another technique our group choose to utilize as it shows the characters current feelings and raw selves in order to transform who they are and their emotional ranges into that of the characters they portray. In doing so, they function, take action and live the reality and lifestyle of these characters, without having to use the past or imagining the future. Amir, as narrator moves in and out time and instigates the time changes and actor transformations. An example of this is in scene two; Amir begins to tell the story of how he and his family came to be in Australia and in doing so creates the shift in time and enterers/ becomes the character he is telling the story about. He starts the scene off by making the audience believe he is about to narrate the story when all sudden he starts grabbing characters, Stephanie becomes Penny Boulton and Brendan becomes James Boulton and the story goes on to take a and intriguing turn. This is an effective technique as it really engages the audience by keeping them intrigued in the play as it draws them into the story and is an interesting way of acting out the story rather then just narrating it. This was an important technique we choose to utilize as it was throughout the play as a means of telling the story.
There where also various techniques in A Beautiful Life that we choose not to utilize. The symbol of the rose being one of them. This was mainly due to the fact that we could not adequately explore and develop this idea of freedom through the use of roses given the amount of time that we have.
A Beautiful Life follows the Brechtian, theatre of cruelty and contemporary theatre performance conventions in order to challenge assumptions rethink beliefs or reaffirm certainties.
The Brechtian idea of retelling a story or events to assist the audiences understanding is used in our performance. The ideas of justice, abuse of power and prejudice are important issues the combined story of the protest and the refugee explore to communicate to an Australian audience as means of provoking social change as Brecht’ conventions indented it to be. An example of this is the way our performance positions the audience to see the Iranians in a sympthetic way. We show cruel, harsh and unfair imprisonment and its conditions forcing the audience to become discussed with what they’ve seen and call for social change. Theatre of cruelty is the attack on the scenses and aims at challenging audience’s pre conceived idea’s and innocent conceptions to create new awareness so as the audience can actively take this movement and change the cause and reasons for this such extortionary theatre, using a minimalist stage, lighting and minimalist costumes. Contemporary Australian Drama is the means in which a story is developed in new ways to assist audiences interpret the ideas and images presented in the theatre. In A Beautiful Life and our play some of the unique techniques used to convey the issues of modern theatre are used, these being: transformational acting, narrator, and non-English language, to convey modern Australian issues of multiculturalism.
Our play uses the techniques, conventions, background and the ideas presented in A Beautiful Life to create a small scale version of the combined histories of the refugee musician and the Iranian Embassy protest. We have conveyed the ideas of modern Australian issues regarding multiculturalism, prejudice, injustice and brutality to through an array dramatic forms and techniques. We have accurately conveyed a reflection on the ways in which our Performance reflects the performance style, dramatic techniques and conventions, conveys ideas and develops a response from the audience, and reflects the historical and social background A Beautiful Life presents.
Word count: 1477
