THE BIRD LANGUAGE

The premiere of Abdulgani Aliyev's The Bird Language took place at the Yuh Theatre. This is a staged version of Tarana Vahid's book Beyond the Paradise. The director, obviously gravitating toward the Sufi philosophy and esotericism, saturates the action with metaphorical symbols and signs. The actors do not have an opportunity to hide behind the text, because the dynamics of the plastic-dramatic action is quite intense: the events follow each other in a kaleidoscopic sequence while the director’s thoughts hardly keeps up the pace with his own imagination.

Prologue

A white shivering bird flutters inside a black office. She looks particularly good under fluorescent light. In the anticipation of action, her impeccable whiteness and purity create an atmosphere of poetic world. The world where the thought is immaterial and the feeling of love has universal meaning and significance.

On philosophy

A bird is a symbol of the primary matter and a particle of the human soul. In line with esoteric traditions, the bird language is the language of the giants who came from the east and built the Tower of Babel. The bird language is the language of ancient kings and prophets. It is the language of symbols, Sufism, esotericism, etc. It symbolizes  the relations between the Man and Woman, their ability to comprehend the life and themselves. Finally, the bird language is the director's attempt to convey the thought through not only the text, but also the stage metaphor. It is said that the one who knows the bird language knows God. So, the inhabitants of a mountain village (we see houses with light in the windows and the mountains behind them) seek the presence of God in themselves and in the world around them. Men and women. The search for the truth leads to an understanding that every person consists of a body and soul, but not everyone is created in His image and likeness. Man and woman are mortal by nature because they are earthly. Can they become heavenly? For He who has created them in His image is imperishable. Kitabi Dede Gorgud written back in the 9^th century refers to the inhabitants of the heavenly world, which can be seen only in dreams. But people are not equal to them. On the contrary, Abdulgani tries to trace the path of a person who realizes that the only true path is the path to light, that is, to knowledge, spiritual enlightenment. Including through the knowledge of Love as the highest manifestation of the human soul.

Only this path will allow a person to approach the Truth called God. Therefore, the language of birds is the language of the elect among mortals. But this language is not only the language of sages, philosophers and enlightened ones, it is also the language of Love. Men and women. Their union is blessed from above. It is important to keep it, not entangled in the labyrinths of life's difficulties and constant choice. The language of Love is also a bird's language, requiring intense work on your thoughts and feelings, which then turn into actions. You can become happy, you can even become elected if you speak this language. Here we can assume the citation of the director's reference to the achievements of oriental philosophers, including Sufis.

On metaphor

A density of metaphors per square meter of this small scenic space is overwhelming. The idea moves swiftly, sometimes chaotically, hindering the perception of the thought, which the author of the performance seeks to convey to the audience. It seems to be the director's desire to combine life and the poeticized philosophy of his reflections into one. As if he tries to resort to the conventions of the metaphorical theatre that was so popular in the late 60s of the last century.

The play is in black and white. The actors are in black robes. Stage clothes are also black. At certain moments, a white canvas appears that personifies the water of the World Ocean, then the collective mind, whose energy of thought is ritually directed to the Almighty. According to the action on the stage, it looks like this: a white canvas, forming into a moving stream (water, thought, energy), rises, or rather moves up. In that heavenly outland, which you cannot reach with your hands and cannot measure with your eyes. The energy directed to the mountain peaks is gained by the ritual action performed by the Men and Women of this village, dressed in white robes. Something ancient language appears in this ritual movement in a circle, in the way they spread a circle resembling the Sun with flowers and twigs of trees. The sun, which children like to draw: a circle and rays radiating from it. The author of the play throughout the whole action resorts to the allegorical language of metaphors through the graphic series.

On performance

It is believed that the director's language is a mise en scene. It seems that not everything is so simple and straightforward. Most likely, the director's language is an action. The action that dominates either in the mise en scene (physics), or in a mask (psyche), or in a word (verbally). Action is always a change. The director must organize this change so that his message is understandable to the viewer. Abdulgani Aliyev tries to combine these three points in an attempt to achieve an ideal result. Not everything works out, and therefore the connecting points of the transitions are visible through routine actions to the poetic ones. The saturation of the action with an artistic metaphor makes it difficult for the audience to understand the meaning of each element used, and therefore it fails to "decode" the essence of the intended meaning. At this point, the dialogue between the audience and the director is interrupted. It takes time to return to it again.

People's Theatre

This is the title of the book by Giorgio Strehler. But I do not want to talk about the book for now. It is about the theatre. How we see it and how we create it today. Both professionals and spectators. The theatre is a mirror of our life. What is it like? What is its meaning today? What does a person live for today? Both the Yuh Theatre and the Pantomime Theatre constantly ask these questions to themselves and their audience. Moral searches, philosophical and artistic generalizations, the ability to ask the audience "inconvenient" and even unpleasant questions, is a moment that essentially distinguishes these theatres from all other theatres of Baku. Moral searches for Abdulgani Aliyev reflect the conceptual position of the theatre itself.

Afterword

The language of action is understandable and accessible to all of us. Just like the performances of the Japanese Kabuki theatre, where the action is based on all three components of the director's language: physics, psyche, and words. However, the Japanese Noh Theatre is different. It was very popular among the samurai in the 14^th century and is accessible only to the elite. Now, Noh remains the same because the action is full of nuances, deep and incomprehensible meaning for an untrained spectator. Abdulgani Aliyev is looking for his own stylistics, relying on the experience of the oriental and European theatres. The key point is to find the same bird language that will allow you to sail in the same boat with the audience. And that is the purpose of life for the theatres, to be honest...