The Fig Tree, and the Phoenix, and the Desire To Be Reborn

Play (2025)
by Isabelle Fereshteh Sanatdar Stevens
Directed by Nikta Sabouri
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Spring Repertory Festival
February 20 – March 9, 2025

Scenic Designer: Cleo Brooks; Lighting Designer: Grant Powicki; Original Music and Sound Designer: Arshan Gailus

With Minou Pourshariati (Mandana), Danny Bryck (Javeed)

The play begins with a mythological setting, with two elders – perhaps gods of some sort – who are speaking of the world’s destiny. The scene then changes to a more realistic setting: Javeed (Danny Bryck) and Mandan (Minou Pourshariati) are two eight year olds afoot and alone during the Iran-Iraq War in 1988. Planes fly overhead and there is a constant threat of attack. When the planes go by, Javeed bends down and fervently prays that they are not attacked.

Both have suffered severe losses; Mandana has lost her older brother and Javeed has lost his grandfather, and both are in mourning. Minou claims she is en route to Baghdad to set Saddam Hussein on fire, but both Minou and Javeed are caught in the crossfire of the war; they also lament the state of drought and pray for rain. Javeed is Muslim, Minou is Zoroastrian and they compare notes on their religious backgrounds. They share stories and joke with one another, in particular about Javeed’s large head. They confess their desire to live and say I don’t want to be a martyr.

In their fantasy about precipitation they have an imaginary snowball fight. A fig tree miraculously bears fruit in the midst of a horrible drought. Birds, roosters, flowers erupt in their tales and the image of the phoenix as that which rises out of the ashes and provides wisdom and protection prevails throughout. Finally, in the wake of what seems to be a bombing, the mythological elders return, providing a closing bookend to the realistic tale, suggesting that myth and reality are interlaced, contributing an important extra dimension to a devastated world.

Indeed, this short play – about seventy minutes – is rich with wonderful some wonderful acting and some wonderful staging that helps to convey its combined sense of realistic terror and mythological elevation. The pair of actors – Minou Pourshariati and Danny Bryck do a fine job together and evoke a strong sense of this pair of children caught in the crossfire. Danny Bryck’s very funny and demonstrative antics stand out – he does wonderful impressions of a rooster and is hilarious, in addition to being, in general, dutifully evocative of his character’s deeply fraught situation.

Staging, in general, is excellent, with a truly beautiful set by scenic Designer Cleo Brooks featuring a painted tapestry forming the backdrop during the central realistic section. As well, lighting by Grant Powicki, and choreography presumably by director Nikta Sabour,i are expertly done, adding dimension and texture to the production. Special note should be made of original music composition and sound design by Arshan Gailus whose work gives vivid sonic support to all of the various narrative dimensions, from overhead planes, to birds and roosters, to flutes, and rain, and gods. Altogether, this small, but beautifully staged, production, achieves wonderful results.

This strong anti-war piece, though short in length and modest in scope, packs considerable punch and gives both an important sense of the terrible impact of war on young children and an associated sense of the importance of art and story in helping children, and adults as well, to color, season and help to interpret a world that often appears so bleak.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)