‘Café Pulcherie’ Interacts With Audience

A one-act monologue ‘Chez Pulcherie,’ written by French author, theater director and actor Alain Vettese, 65, is underway in Tehran.

Titled ‘Café Pulcherie’ in Persian, the play is directed by theater director, critic, journalist and playwright Maryam Jafari, 37, Honaronline reported.

It is about a 45-year-old woman who owns and runs a café. Her role is played by two actresses, Jafari and Elaheh Asghari.

“Instead of the solo thespian in the original work, I have used two actors, each playing a different side of the woman’s character,” said Jafari who has studied psychology and applied her knowledge in rendering the character of Madame Pulcherie. But in doing so she has not made radical changes to the original play. “The script per se has the potential to be played by two characters,” she says.

In the performance, actors and audiences are in close interaction. “Given that the story is of a café, I tried to make the audiences feel like they are customers in the café, and in direct connection with the thespians.”

The play shows Pulcherie busy cleaning her café, thinking aloud. She reviews the happenings at the café in the past several years and comments on them.

Among the regulars of the café, there’s a lonely young man often sitting at a corner, writing poems. She eventually takes a liking to the man and adopts a positive attitude toward life.

Just as Pulcherie decides to confess her feelings to the man, she hears that he has jumped from his apartment building and killed himself.  

The play opened on March 6 at Performance House (Khaneh Theater), located on Mohammad Aqa Alley, Mousavi Street, Ferdowsi Square. It will run through March 17, starting each evening at 7:30 pm.