The Berkshire cultural season drops off sharply after Labor Day. Fortunately for those of us who live here year-round, local theater organizations push the season into the fall, when we see an uptick of visitors eager to view the brilliant autumn foliage displays unfold across our mountainsides, and a spate of new productions to entertain them in the evenings.
Shakespeare & Company is typically the first to kick off the off-season. This fall’s shoulder season production is the world premiere of Three Tall Persian Women, by Awni Abdi-Bahri, which was originally presented as a staged reading in last year’s Plays in Process series.
Niousha Noor as Nasrin with with her daughter, Golnar, played by Awni Abdi-Bahri, who is also the playwright; photo by Maggie Hall
The young author is also an actor; she portrays Golnar, one of the three aforementioned women who are the focus of this play. Golnar is the daughter of Nasrin (played by Niousha Noor), who is, in turn, the daughter of Mamani (Lanna Joffrey). Mamani has recently moved into Nasrin’s home in Laguna Hills — about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego — resulting in a living room cluttered with boxes. While her mother and grandmother have been asleep, Golnar has returned home on the red eye from New York a few hours early to be part of a traditional gathering, called “mehmooni,” marking the one-year anniversary of her father’s death.
The play opens as Nasrin finds Golnar thrashing around in her bed, in the middle of, shall we say, a pleasurable dream, which her mother — surprised to find her home — mistakes for a nightmare. The audience is immediately cued into the tension between mother and daughter, as Golnar exudes discomfort in speaking with her mother about anything related to sex. We also learn that — much to her mother’s dismay (and her grandmother’s dismissive demeanor) — Golnar identifies as gender fluid.
Nasrin looks on with trepidation as Golnar tries to help her clear out the clutter; photo by Maggie Hall
Golnar wants to help her mother clear the house of the boxes and other items that she literally trips over, but Nasrin cannot let go of the stuff that represents her memories — of her daughter as a less headstrong child, of life in Iran under the Shah, of familial relationships… All of it has sentimental value, but Golnar views it as junk, some of which she can sell on Facebook. Their tense dialog reveals that conflicts have arisen in past visits home, as well as mutual disappointments: Nasrin’s implicit displeasure that Golnar has pursued an MFA and is working at pointless online writing jobs; Golnar’s sadness that her family was not there for her graduation and a general sense of their displeasure with her, which she stokes with her defensive/petulant attitude and revealing wardrobe choices.
Lanna Joffrey as Mamani has little respect for personal boundaries; photo by Maggie Hall
Despite her humorous presence, friction among the women rises when Mamani is onstage. It’s clear she has no boundaries when it comes to her granddaughter, heightening Golnar’s frustration level as she forces food on her, presents her with a beyond-inappropriate graduation gift, and ventures into uncomfortable conversational territory. Mamani, for her part, is concerned that her granddaughter is sexually adventuresome, while at the same time she’s up in arms at the actions of the modestly police in Iran and a vocal proponent of female bodily autonomy.
And so we find ourselves in a comic play dealing with the universality of conflict between mothers and daughters along with the culturally specific strains of an immigrant family. In addition to the looming presence of Nasrin’s deceased husband, in the form of an imposing portrait, there is one male character: Shayan (Afsheen Misaghi), a childhood friend of Golnar’s whose family will arrive later for the mehmooni. His interactions with Golnar further contextualize the generational and cultural issues at hand.
The presence of Shayan, played by Afsheen Misaghi, brings even more complications; photo by Katie McKellick
This would be more than enough for one play, but like the family’s living room, this story is overly cluttered; it has a few too many plot points. In addition to playing a lead role, playwright Abdi-Bahri has lofted a lot of balls in the air, giving director Dalia Ashurina a lot to juggle. The play’s title references Edward Albee’s 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Three Tall Women, which also revolves around women of different generations, though in Albee’s drama the women end up being three stages of one woman’s life, and in this comedy the women are decidedly distinct.
Nasrin and Mamani share a laugh in the clutter; photo by Maggie Hall
Mamani is the comic foil, cutting the tension between her daughter Nasrin and granddaughter Golnar, and Lanna Joffrey plays the humor to the hilt. But her character is also confusing. We hear from Golnar and Nasrin that she is conservative, but her dialog positions her as an ardent feminist, albeit one who idolizes the Shah and is nostalgic for his reign. Also, the female characters are supposed to range three generations, but visually, there didn’t seem to be much difference in their ages. (We must acknowledge the difficulty in finding an adequate pool of actors with the necessary age and ethnic diversity in the rural Berkshires.) That said, the actors do an admirable job in portraying the women’s hopes and frustrations and their deep love and concern for each other.
Golnar and Nasrin reach resolution by the play’s conclusion; photo by Photo by Katie McKellick
As the audience is aware that past visits have concluded with cataclysmic events, so too does this visit, but in the end, it seems to have cleared the air. There’s a satisfying (if a bit pat) ending in each of the characters find resolution and move forward in a charming way. Deft costume design by Andrea Herrera furthers this conclusion. Adept set design by Omid Akbari must also be acknowledged for creating a physical atmosphere of chaos that reflects the unsettled issues swirling around the characters. With a bit of decluttering, Three Tall Persian Women could also resolve some of the issues that hold it back from being a better play.
Three Tall Persian Women runs on weekends through October 13 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.
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