Host: Houshang Tozih Guests: Anton Chekhov, Abbas Nalbandian, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ebrahim Golestan, and Parvin Tozih Music: 'Violet Migration' Dinner Menu: Soup and Salad This week’s host is Houshang Tozih, a playwright, director, and actor in cinema and theater. He began his artistic career in the late 1940s at the Tehran Workshop Theater, an important center for experimental theater, collaborating with great directors like Arbi Avanesian and Abbas Nalbandian. After the revolution, he immigrated to the United States and, following the closure of the Workshop Theater during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, established 'Workshop Theater 79' in memory of that theatrical group. Along with his wife, Shohreh Aghdashloo, he staged successful plays, often with political-social themes, presented in a comedic format. Mr. Tozih has acted in three Iranian films: 'The Messenger', 'Guests of the Astoria Hotel', and 'American Beauty', as well as several American films and television series. He lives in California with his wife, and I have spoken with him over the phone.
About Houshang Tozih: Houshang Tozih is a playwright, director, and actor in cinema and theater. He started theater in the 1940s at the Workshop Theater, emigrated to America after the revolution, and established 'Workshop Theater 79' with his wife, Shohreh Aghdashloo, staging successful plays often with political-social themes in a comedic format.
Mr. Tozih, welcome to the program. Please tell me which five people you would like to invite to your dinner party? After greetings, my dear guests are Mr. Anton Chekhov, playwright and novelist; Mr. Abbas Nalbandian, another playwright; Mr. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, writer; Mr. Ebrahim Golestan, filmmaker and writer; and my mother. I will later ask you why you are interested in these guests. But first, tell me what music you would like to play for them? I must say regarding Chekhov, I don’t know, but Marquez was in exile for years, Ebrahim Golestan was the same, Abbas Nalbandian, although he was in his homeland, was still in exile, and my mother, although she was always in Iran, had a separate character for me. Therefore, I chose a song called 'Violet Migration' with lyrics by Mr. Shahifi Koodakani and sung by the beautiful Farhad Mehrad. A song that describes our condition.
Mr. Tozih, now let’s return to the guests you selected. Initially, you mentioned Anton Chekhov, the Russian playwright and writer. Explain why you are interested in Chekhov? Houshang Tozih: I can say that Chekhov is a kind of sacred book for playwrights. Chekhov is known for not playing favorites with his characters. If I may say more literarily, he does not judge the characters he creates in his plays. He does not prefer one person over another. In fact, just as he gives opportunities to supposedly bad characters, he gives the same opportunities to supposedly good characters. He does not see the people in his works in black and white; they are like his children. One turns out bad and one good. What many playwrights do is have a kind of sympathy and empathy for their favorite characters and conversely a kind of hatred and disgust towards the antagonists. I would love to ask him at the dinner how he could be so generous and kind. You surely know that Tolstoy is the master of Russian literature in the nineteenth century and perhaps in the world. He wrote a letter to Chekhov. Chekhov was much younger than him. In this letter, he says that Chekhov, you are the artist who gave everything to a woman who initially had nothing in your lovely story. Not me, who in Anna Karenina took everything from a woman who had everything—beauty, wealth, and lineage—and put her under a train. In fact, art, in my opinion, is a kind of giving. What Chekhov does is give understanding, awareness, feeling, hope, and knowledge.
Guests of Houshang Tozih: Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov (1860 to 1904): Russian playwright and storyteller Works: From the Diary of a Young Lady, The Complaisant Turkey, Lady with the Little Dog, The Seagull, Three Sisters, and others Reason for invitation: Chekhov is a kind of sacred book for playwrights. He does not judge the characters he creates in his plays. He does not prefer one person over another and does not see the people in his works in black and white.
Chekhov's plays, which I think are about a hundred years old, are still performed around the world. What is it about Chekhov's plays that they are still performed worldwide after a hundred years and people enjoy them? How have they become universal and timeless? It is timeless because his stories are still relevant. They are still happening. Just like Shakespeare’s plays. The issues in Othello or Hamlet are still happening today, for example, in the White House and in centers of power. The same things, jealousies, betrayals, scheming, revenge... In Chekhov, for example, consider that the play 'The Cherry Orchard' represents the decline of an aristocratic life, the decline of a life in a bubble that its people do not realize, and they continue to fall with dignity. This reminds me of Iran. The cherry orchard is the orchard of Iran. I think the reason for Chekhov's durability is that his characters are tangible and not archetypal. A thief in one of his plays may say something that makes one think he is a thief and probably uneducated, but what a beautiful philosophical statement he makes. This means people are not absolute. Neither absolutely good nor absolutely bad.
Mr. Tozih, now let’s move on to your second guest, Mr. Abbas Nalbandian, who was a pioneering playwright in Iran. Tell us what your interest in Mr. Nalbandian is? Guests of Houshang Tozih: Abbas Nalbandian Abbas Nalbandian (1949 to 1989): Pioneering Iranian playwright Works: From Seven to Nine and a Half, From Death to Death, If Faust Had a Little Understanding, and others Reason for invitation: Nalbandian is the Siavash of the Shahnameh of Iranian theater. An exception in Iranian playwriting and at the same time a misunderstanding. He was far ahead of his time. Nalbandian, in my opinion, Mr. Saba, is the Siavash of the Shahnameh of Iranian theater. An exception in Iranian playwriting and at the same time a misunderstanding. I believe his presence and birth in Iran and his work were a misunderstanding. It was supposed to happen elsewhere, but it happened in Iran. He was indeed far ahead of his time? Very much ahead. Even if he were alive today, he would still be ahead compared to the plays being written now. You know that Abbas Nalbandian came from a very low class in Tehran. He was a newspaper vendor’s son. Studying was not an obligation for him but truly a spiritual need. It was his window to breathe in that closed space. Do you remember that closed space? The miserable atmosphere of Persian films and what is called 'Abgooshti', some of which I found pleasant. Then there was the culture of ignorance and knife fighting, the knife fighters who were honor-bound and knowledgeable, for example. If at that time there were intellectual and artistic movements, especially in the field of theater, they were so few and limited that people like Nalbandian never had the chance to coexist with them. A poor, shy young man who could neither join the Roshd Club (an artists' club on Roshd Street in Tehran), nor go to the Revi restaurant café, nor even the Firooz café where intellectuals of that time gathered. Nalbandian wrote a play at that time, and I don’t know where his interest in playwriting came from. In any case, he wrote a play in which I had a small role, and we went to foreign festivals. I may not be able to pronounce its name correctly. It was called: 'A Deep and Great Research on the Fossils of the Fifth Geological Period or Fourteenth, Twentieth, It Doesn’t Matter'. Choosing such a name, such a title indicates a mindset that is undoubtedly unique. At a time when most playwrights were imitating Saadi and Beizai, Nalbandian wrote a play as if someone from space was looking at Iranian society and observing it so precisely and beautifully. I still believe that play, with the extraordinary performance of Arbi Avanesian and its excellent main actors, is the best theatrical work in Iran. In any case, that play participated in the playwriting competition of the Art Festival and came second, and Arbi performed it beautifully, and the fate of this newspaper vendor changed 180 degrees. Nalbandian became the internal manager of the Workshop Theater a few years later and really, as I witnessed, had a significant impact on the growth of the Workshop Theater kids. Suddenly, a part of Iranian theater found global standards in that small and very intimate center. Although Abbas Nalbandian lived with us and in our society, it seemed he came from another planet, and his thoughts did not fit within our boundaries. Even in his personal behaviors, he had no relation to us. He was noble, dignified, and generous.
Mr. Tozih, Mr. Nalbandian had a tragic death and committed suicide. He had a very, very tragic death. Very painful. At the end of his life, after the revolution, he had hard, bitter, and dramatic days, like Shakespearean tragedies, really. Like a character emerging from Dostoevsky's works. He followed the same path. Even in his death, it was theatrical.
Now let’s move on to your third guest, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the great Latin American writer. Tell us about Marquez, what impact he had on you, and what your interest in him is? Guests of Houshang Tozih: Marquez Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927 to 2014): Colombian journalist and novelist Famous works: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Autumn of the Patriarch, Love in the Time of Cholera, and others Reason for invitation: Marquez was both a writer and a political activist, which I really like about his work. But overall, he was an admirer of beauty. He had the greatest impact on world literature in the twentieth century. Marquez was both a writer and a political activist, which I really like about his work. But overall, he was an admirer of beauty; whether he saw this beauty in a woman, in a garden, or in human behavior, he admired it. In my opinion, Marquez had the greatest impact on world literature in the twentieth century. He set a standard that after him, everyone had to shake themselves. I really want to see how he talks about ordinary things at this dinner. Because I have seen him talk about literature online. I want to see how he eats. I want to know how big his skull is that a person can be so creative. How can a writer have so many masterpieces? How can he be so popular and yet so humble and down-to-earth? Really, when he left the house, he didn’t feel like he was a writer. I want to ask him another question; like Marlon Brando, did they view writing and acting as a profession? Did they see it as a business (source of income)? Because I myself have looked at my work as a profession and a business (source of income) in many places. But for example, Mr. Marquez distanced himself from his wife and children and took a shabby room in a hotel in Paris, and he hadn’t paid his rent for three months. The hotel manager would knock on his door whenever he went to say, 'You must pay me today or leave.' He would hear the sound of a typewriter and think, 'This animal is working; I will come back in the afternoon.' He would return in the afternoon and hear the same sound. He would think, 'I will come back at night.' At night he would return and hear the same sound again. Marquez only went out late at night. Well, Marquez was once an ambassador and wrote for famous newspapers and earned money. How could he abandon all these things for what he loves and believes in, like One Hundred Years of Solitude, dedicating his life to it? If I’m not mistaken, he worked on this book for 14 years. In an interview, he was asked why it took so long, and he said, 'I spent two years thinking about its name and three years on the first paragraph.' They asked why, and he said, 'After all, the entire novel rides on the name and then on the first paragraph.' And everyone knows the first paragraph of One Hundred Years of Solitude... I want to ask Marquez at the dinner how one reaches a point where they can free themselves from all temptations of money, cars, houses, success, etc., and go sit in a corner to write a text that may never be published.
Now let’s move on to your fourth guest, Mr. Ebrahim Golestan, who at the age of ninety-five or six is still with us and has a creative mind. Tell us about Mr. Golestan and what your interest in him is? Guests of Houshang Tozih: Ebrahim Golestan Ebrahim Golestan (1922): Iranian writer, director, and documentary filmmaker Works: The Last Month of Autumn, The Fashion and the Moon, The Rooster, From Drop to Sea, Brick and Mirror, Secrets of the Treasure of Jeneid Valley Reason for invitation: Mr. Golestan, in my opinion, cannot be contained in his own volume. The high values of Mr. Ebrahim Golestan are not only seen in his works but also in the thousands of interviews he has done and the way he speaks. He gives people the courage not to lie. He gives people the courage not to be polite.