One Minute and Thirteen Seconds by Bahman Abbāspour and Mohammad Charmshir (review)

Observing the lives of homeless women, Bah-man Abbāspour started developing the idea of One Minute and Thirteen Seconds two years before its production. The prominent Iranian playwright Mohammad Charmshir later joined him to help write the text. Among the observed women, fifty-three were interviewed to assist the writing team in assembling the background story of the play's four characters—Reihān, Samāneh, Pari, and Āvā—of which three were played by well-known Iranian actors of cinema and theatre.

One Minute and Thirteen Seconds dealt with one of the ever-persisting social pathologies that has never been fully investigated or tackled by officials, academics, or social workers. Although there has never been an accurate statistic on the number of homeless people, there is an estimate of 2,000 to 5,000 homeless women in Tehran, the majority of whom consume and sell drugs, labor as sex workers, or take part in trafficking their own children. The play embedded a limited number of subplots in the three narratives performed in the form of monologues, which were frequently interrupted by the complaints of the fourth character, Āvā, who kept asking for a chance to speak. The stage was surrounded by tall mirrors and included mats, arranged in circles, ready for the audience to sit on and surround the four characters.

Reihān began by recalling how she was abandoned by her mother at birth and since then has failed to find her. She was followed by Samāneh, an art student, who decided to leave her conservative family to pursue the dream of becoming a musician. Finally, Pari revealed her decision to terminate her pregnancy and bury her child under a tree, which she hoped would grow taller than herself. She had had a more difficult childhood than the other two, because her father forced her into the sex trade.

Although the monologues were lengthy at times, and the harshness of the subject matter often made them seem even longer, the black humor helped lighten up the heavy atmosphere. In addition to the dark comedy, music played a significant role in both the dramatic and entertainment elements of the show, as a hang-drum player accompanied the characters throughout the performance. Notably, Āvā was only allowed to sing when another character felt like having a moment of tranquility or delight. One of the controversial elements used in the play was the presence of a solo female singer onstage, which defied the restrictions placed on women singing in Iran since the revolution in 1979. In Iran's theatres,

Simā Tirandāz (Reihān) in One Minute and Thirteen Seconds. (Photo: Arezour Azadpour.)

such decisions inevitably attract condemnation from the hardliners, and this performance was no exception. To add to the controversy, in the middle of her monologue Pari asked Āvā to sing something diverting, and she chose a well-known Iranian Tasnif from 1927 called "Morqhe Sahar" (dawn bird), by prominent poet Mohammad-Tagi Bahār and musician Mortezā Neidāvoud. The song carries a significantly strong sociopolitical message, conveying the desperation of a nation that is fed up with despotism and wishes the dawn bird would "wail and break the cage." Not only did the song resonate with the disillusionments of an audience that was experiencing the current political upheaval in Iran, but it also gained momentum when the audience was asked to sing along. Although the audience learned little about Āvā's life, her presence could not have been more significant as a solo singer who sang sad songs on behalf of the large population of marginalized and silenced women. The show ended with Āvā being allotted just one minute and thirteen seconds to tell her story. She instead asked the audience to turn on their smartphones' flashlights and join her while she sang another popular song, "The Lonely Man," changing the...