“Diphenhydramine” director: My actors are stage soldiers

Alireza Maroufi, the director of the play “Difen Hydramin”, which is on stage at the Shahr Theater as part of the resistance theater festival, told Mehr reporter about the theme of this play: “War is an anti-human issue and this category has always been of special importance to me. Every day we observe the news and virtual space which is full of violence, war and cruelty. It's one of the main reasons I continue to deal with war issues, even if the show isn't directly about war. My next work may not be about war and I will deal with another anti-human subject, but probably because the world is not in a good state and there is no peace, my concern remains in this direction.

He added: “My shows are more in the political and social sphere than just war, but they are still somehow related to war. Even the shows that I worked on social issues such as poverty, still deal with an anti-human category.

Marufi said about his participation in the Resistance Theater Festival: “Participating in the festival has always been attractive to me.” Even in school, competitions were fascinating to me, from football matches to Olympiads. Healthy competition has always been important to me. These days, when my shows are mostly in the mood of resistance, the resistance festival is a great platform to compete with those who are active in the same field. This year, one of the positive points of the Resistance Festival is that it has provided a platform for public performances for groups. This means that the shows are not limited to only 2 performances in the festival and the groups can show their works publicly.

This director explained about the costume design of the show: Because the show “Diphenhydramine” has an inflammatory and contradictory mood, I thought that the clothes should represent these conditions. The main theme of the show is Siavash's return from the war, and the conditions of the show should somehow represent the war. I thought of martial arts clothing because these clothes are full of meaning and philosophy. For this reason, I chose the Taekwondo costume and I think this costume helped a lot to show and complete the characters and their movements.

He also said about the performance method of “Diphenhydramine” show: In line with my previous works, the space of the show is empty, that is, there is nothing completely on the stage. This makes the atmosphere of the show and the actor stand out more. In fact, our effort is to create order in an empty space. This is the modern way of execution and even the design of clothes goes in the same direction. We are looking for a modern show where there are mise-en-scènes that are rarely seen in other shows.

In the end, the director of the show “Diphenhydramine” said about the casting of this work: I was looking for a new mother to choose the actress for the role of the mother, that is, the sea. The mothers we have seen in the shows are always old, but I wanted to find a young and emotional mother. Elaheh Zahti was one of the best choices, because she is both young and has good experience in the theater. After choosing Ms. Zahti, I chose other actors based on her. My actors are very cooperative and stage soldiers, and finally we were able to reach a harmonious and uniform form in the cast.

The play “Diphenhydramin” written and directed by Alireza Maroufi is on stage in the form of Resistance Theater Festival from 7th to 27th of December in Qashqai Hall of Shahr Theater Complex.

Elaha Zahmati, Mehdi Javaid, Leila Minavand, Javad Mousavi, Setareh Mbini, Mahmoud Majidi are the actors of this show whose plot summary states: Siavash has been back for three days and can't eat, why? Because it has no mouth…

The photo is from Sahin Moghadam.