Creation  2016 & 2017

A site-based performance written, directed, & designed by Hossein Tavazoni-zadeh

Introduction

The old house where the previous project (Amsterdam) was performed, hosted the second site-specific project of the group: The Butterfly.  Here, the audience was limited to three people who could move freely throughout the location, with the play being performed in different rooms. While in Amsterdam we were mainly focused on the ground floor and the yard, this time we shifted our focus to the upper levels of the building. The other difference was the fact that the setting of a movie which was shot on the second floor before the production of this performance, with minor changes, was employed in this performance. Therefore, our aim was to have a new reading of the existing setting on two levels: a) the interior structure of the house as the design of the architect of this building, compared to our earlier performance; and the decoration made by the set designer of the film, which was itself an artistic reading of the second floor of the location.

After the first public performance of the project in February and March 2016, The Butterfly was invited by the selection panel of the 35th Fadjr International Theatre Festival. Since the former location was not available anymore, we selected/found another building and redesigned the performance based on the same text. The starting step was making limited restorations and cleansing of the new location, a large mansion belonging to Iranian early modernist architecture of the mid-1990s. Along with this, we studied the history of the house and its former residents. This led us to integrate the found objects on this site into the play and give shape to the movements according to the interior architecture of this foor-floor mansion. Finally, the new version of The Butterfly was performed from January 20th to 31st. The performance won the Best Plan and Idea Award as well as the Best Actress Award at the 35th Fadjr International Theatre Festival.

Synopsis

The story revolves around a young girl who has been kept away from the outside world, isolated in an old house.  Trying to prove that she was mistakenly diagnosed as mentally disabled, years ago when she was a baby,  her family resists freeing her for having superstitious beliefs about the negative effect that their child might have on others. The girl's life changes as she meets a tender-hearted Ghoul!