“Winter 66” , the Philosophy of Life and Death  *

by Alireza Ahmadzadeh

Synopsis:

A playwright, writes the story of a family, who  in winter of the year 1369 ( 1987 ), at the time of the Iraqi imposed war, was targeted by the Iraqi missile attacks in Tehran. The family comprises mother, her son Naser, her married  daughter Nahid and her son-in-law Ali. The son of the family, after a hard debate with his sister leaves the house.

 Due to the enemy’s heavy missile attacks, the family members who are worried about Naser, can not the house and finally, a huge missile hits the house and all of them except Naser who is out of the house, are martyred.

When the audience enter the small hall of Theatre-e Shahr ( City   Theatre , they can hear the sad voice of a man, who talks with his wife about an event which happened in the winter 1366. His statements make the audience familiar with the family, who lives under heavy attacks of the enemy.

The light in the scene shows a simple residential unit with ordinary furniture. The family has recently moved to the house. The play starts when the mother and her daughter Nahid are present in the scene. When they utter their first dialogue, the audience realize the mother enjoys a kind and compassionate character, while her daughter is a pessimistic person. The mother in the play is the same traditional mother with the same characteristics of Iranian mothers and Nahid is an emotional and jealous character who usually bothers those living around her, but her sensitivity sterms from her inherent kindness. The kindness which is not employed appropriately by her.

Due to Nahid’s bad behavior, her husband Ali leaves her. Ali is an introvent person, whose characteristics are contrary to Nahid’s. He is a shy and a man of few words, while Nahid is a talkative and curious person. Naser is the young son of the family who resists the order of his sister.

At first, when Naser leaves the house, the atmosphere of the play is such that the audience think that he will certainly be martyred, but as the play continues, they realize that the disaster is deeper than what they expect. All members of the family die and only Naser survives the attacks.

One, who sees the play twice, can feel the depth of the disaster. Mother makes relentless efforts to promote relations between her son and daughter. Nahid disputes with her husband about minor issues. But none of them know that they will be killed very soon and this is a big catastrophe which leads the audience to think.

The voice of the playwright and his wife can be heard in the scene. In fact the playwright acts as a narrator. He explaines every scene for his wife and when his words are finished each scene is performed by the actors and actresses. Such kind of a play is a new method employed by the director of ” winter 66” Mohammad Yaghoobi.

The play is full of turning points. Yaghoobi has paid due attention to every spiritual aspect of characters in “ winter 66 ”  and this is another positive point about this play. The cast from Mohammad Reza Hosenzadeh, who performs the role of Naser to Pante’a  Bahram who performs the complicated role of Nahid are very strong.

But the most most noteworthy ones were the performances of Human Barghnavard playing the role of the dumb neighbor and Poupak  Goldarreh playing  the role of a woman neighbor with her special voice.

In general, “ Winter 66 “ is a deep look into the philosophy of life and emotional relations among family members. By directing “ Winter 66 “ Yaghoobi has created a memorable work which relies on the creativity and strong performance of its cast.