In 2007, when the number of the day and month matched the year, 19-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari’s life changed forever. She stabbed a 55-year-old man who tried to rape her. Her helpless act of self-defence was soon termed a politically charged, premeditated murder and she was doomed to grow out her teenage years in prison and into young adulthood while on death row.
Chennai sat up and took notice of the injustice meted out to this young Iranian woman, who was hanged in late 2014, when FATS TheArts, a Mumbai-based theatre collective, along with BackStage Theatre Productions, presented 07/07/07 last weekend. The play is famed for having won the META award for best ensemble cast in 2015 and it isn’t any wonder why. The 10-member cast, starring Suruchi Aulakh, Mahnaz Damania, Rytasha Rathore, Tanvee Ravi, Nikhil Murali, Roshan Mathew, Vikrant Dhote and others, was spectacular to watch on stage.
No one actor played a single role. Almost as if in solidarity, they were all Reyhaneh. They were also the people who supported her and those who punished her. Director Faezeh Jalali’s winning stroke was the fluidity of the narrative; it wasn’t chronological. This proved to be refreshingly inventive and gave the audience an edge-of-their seat experience.
The play opens with Reyhaneh being asked to take back her charges against Sarbandi, the man she was accused of murdering. Then, we are given a glimpse into the news reports that flew across international wires. The scene dissolves to the fateful day she stabbed her attacker. She returns home. Flashback to how Reyhaneh met the man. Flashback to the incident that is haunting her. The police arrive. Flashback again to the rape scene. She’s thrown in prison. Accusations, followed by torture to admit to said accusations. Another flashback as memories of her happy family life flood the stage.
As the scenes dissolve into each other and the actors flit between roles, the audience flit between emotions. The stage is constantly a flurry of activity, and the air in the auditorium at Alliance Française is electric.
The play, devised from the letters Reyhaneh wrote while in prison, not only reconstructed the seven years of her life till she was hanged, but also reflected how she felt. While the story in itself is sad, sadness isn’t the primary emotion the performance evokes. With synchronised movements, haunting vocals and interesting light work, the play inspires fear, uncertainty, anger and a sense of helplessness. Everything that a young woman accused of murder would have possibly felt.
At around the 50-minute mark, the plot visibly loses pace. Reyhaneh is moved to a women’s prison, and she says that she feels the bitterness of solitary confinement fading. In a grim story, satire comes in as tales from prison. But the play keeps losing pace. The audience is aware of time ticking by. In retrospect, for a young woman who was plucked out of her home, forced to confess to a murder and sent to prison to await her hanging, time would have gone by much slower.
Faezeh Jalali’s 07/07/07 proved to be a fitting tribute to Reyhaneh. With synchronised movements, haunting vocals and interesting light work, she has not only exploited the form, but also used it to present a sad tale in a suitably thought-provoking and engaging format.
