Hallaj, a Poetic Pilgrimage to Truth
  Soheil Parsa’s Hallaj has returned and had its opening night at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre on Tuesday night Nov. 22nd. This is the 2nd play directed by Soheil Parsa that I have had the privilege to watch, after Aurash last year. Once again, I was empowered by the production and consumed with emotions, and at times, with pain. The play, Hallaj, was based on the biographical story of the mystic Sufi, Hosein-ibn-Mansour al-Hallaj. Hallaj was a devoted Muslim and was passionately in love with God. Having made few journeys to Mecca (hajj) and traveled far and wide, he had his own revelation with God and humanity. He started openly preaching and advocating against the authoritarian beliefs, which made him numerous enemies. However, the pretext for condemning him to death was his advocate of building a replica of the Kaaba for those unable to go to Mecca to perform Hajj. Hallaj was a free thinker, but his freedom came with the highest price – his life. Ḥallaj received a thousand lashes, had his feet and hands cut off, and was eventually hanged to death on the gibbet. His corpse was burned and the ashes poured into the Tigris. The storyline or plot of the play is uniquely familiar to me. It is unique because Hallaj is a unique and remarkable historical figure in the 9th century Bagdad, and it is familiar because the confrontation he has with authority and with himself has repeated itself so many times in history and in the world of theatre. In history, in many parts of the world, people were put in a situation where a choice had to be made between truth and lie, between faithfulness and betrayal. From the religious persecution in middle age Europe, to the 1950s McCarthyism in the United States, to the 1960s Cultural Revolution in China, people were put on the stand for trial because they were not accepted by the “authority”. Some defied, hence punished and some succumbed. In the world of theatre, from the classic Oedipus the King to An Enemy of the People to The Crucible, and now to Hallaj, the tragic heroes confronted the truth and authority, knowing the brutal consequences, maybe it be self-blinding or denunciation or even death. Soheil’s Hallaj, to me, is a tragedy in its true classic meaning. His execution brutally cruel, his psychological struggle painful to watch, Hallaj’s destiny is not pathetic, but sublime; his fate not sad, but empowering and ecstatic. This is the ultimate tragedy in its classic definition by Aristotle – the therapeutic dramatic effect of Catharsis, and by Longinus – the sublime inspiration of the lofty. Hallaj, like Dr. Thomas Stockmann in An Enemy of the People, John Proctor in The Crucible, was alone and different, but as Ibsen's memorable quote goes "...the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone." Hallaj by Modern Times Stage Company is yet another successful small theatre production with great courage and theatricality.
سوتیترها … The strongest man in the
world is the man who stands most alone.
In history, in
many parts of the world, people were put in a situation where a choice had to
be made between truth and lie, between faithfulness and betrayal. Soheil’s Hallaj,
to me, is a tragedy in its true classic meaning.
|