It could've happened to anybody: Faezeh Jalali

FATS TheArts and Backstage Theatre Productions presents 07/07/07 — a play about Reyhaneh Jabbari, a 19-year-old Iranian girl who got arrested and eventually hung for speaking up about the man who molested her. The play’s director Faezeh Jalali tells us about why she chose to make a production about this issue, her experiences while directing it, and how much the team and actors have grown since the first time they staged it. 07/07/07 is coming to Chennai on April 15 and 16, at The Alliance Francaise of Madras.

Faezeh first heard about Reyhaneh through media reports. She had been secretly hung at a prison in Iran on the 25th of October, 2014. Soon after, her letters were passed on to her mother, Sholeh Pokhravan, along with written accounts of the incidents leading up to her arrest, her seven dark years in prison, and her hanging. “Reyhaneh wrote on bits of paper she used to collect, and she managed to hide this from the prison authorities,” says Roshan Mathew, one of the members of the cast.

“As soon as I heard about Reyhaneh’s story, my colleagues and I started researching it further, and even contacted her mother directly,” says Faezeh. Once all the material was in place, she held auditions, assembled a team, and began a six-month long intensive devising and rehearsal process. “I was looking for actors who were good with expressing themselves through movement,” she adds.

The play first opened on December 2, 2015 in Mumbai — “Over time, with 10 shows under our belt, both the play and the ensemble have evolved. We now have a tighter play and a close-knit group,” she explains. Faezeh says she chose this story to alert people to a scary possibility, “We also want them to know that what happened to her could happen to any one of us.”

The team believes that theatre is one of the most powerful mediums to bring about change. “Whether to bring about a change in mindset or action, theatre is a great tool. Women’s issues aren’t confined to a particular section of the society, it is a worldwide web. Like millions of other artistes, we are racing against this web, trying to curb it before it engulfs all of us. It’s a mammoth task, and you can only turn one stone at a time. All you need to do is keep at it and believe,” she says in conclusion.