The Previous Work /
About the play Metamorphosis
The “Metamorphosis”, in terms of its performance complexities along with the play “Rhino” by the same
director, is one of the costliest productions of the “Bread” group. This play which reminds us of the long
story named the same as “Metamorphosis” by “Franz Kafka”, narrates a whole different story in terms of
its performing form. Nasir Malekijoo in this dramatic work has tried to turn the scene into a giant toilet.
The toilet is so big in size in which all the actors would be regarded as tiny verminous insects. In this play,
the director intends to illustrate the issue of struggling for survival. From the perspective of the director,
living in Third World countries like Iran (his birthplace) is not living to enjoy in a closed circle of basic
amenities, but worse than that a constant quest for survival and survival. In this gigantic toilet which is
a symbol of the director’s society, Man has turned into an insidious being who tries to conceal himself
in the bottom of sewage pipes in order not to be beaten on the head by big slippers. This satirical and
of course dark viewpoint that is somewhat close to Kafka mindset can easily go beyond a society and
signify the determinism of the nature and destiny. The political reference to analogize the insects with
the abominable conditions of a communist-dictatorial society can be considered as a larger metaphor
of the dictatorship of the nature and the nihilistic view that would regard human being as something
insignificant, vulnerable and mortal.
Director/playwright/Stage and Costume Designer: Nasir Malekijoo
65 minutes / Hafez Hall 2014
