HER mother ran a popular sweet shop opposite the Lyceum in Edinburgh and she studied for her first masters at the University of Glasgow, so it is little wonder that there is a very Scottish brand of humour running through the new dramatisation of the Greek myth Medea by Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh.
Born in Iran, she came to Scotland when she was very young with her mother and father, an academic.
Now an internationally esteemed artist and writer, she has directed for the National Theatre of Scotland and is currently dramaturg on a production at London’s Royal Court.
She told the Sunday National that she first started looking at the myth of Medea when she was studying for her masters at the University of Glasgow in 2018.
“It was a time in my life when I needed to turn to a fictional character for counsel, to share a laugh.” she said. “When your life shifts dramatically on multiple fronts, sometimes you need to turn to art to make sense of it.
“For each of us when there is a shift in our lives we look for guides. Each of us can relate to that moment – whether it is the kindness of strangers or wisdom from a chance meeting or people in our lives who come forward. They are extraordinary humans who can hold us.”
Medea appealed to Nazli because people have so many different perceptions of her.
“There is this idea that she is a hustler, she’s aware of her own sexuality, she is someone who is an other, a displaced woman,” she said.
It’s a dark myth about a mother who murders her own children but Nazli has her own interpretation of it, in which she sees strength, empathy and also humour.
In her play, Medea shares stories from her Scottish heart and swaggers between the wonderlands of Berlin, Tehran and New York. She turns tragedy to comedy and reclaims her story to take back her sense of self with a new outlook for 2024.
Nazli has presented work all over the world but is delighted her interpretation of Medea will receive its world premiere in Glasgow.
“It has such a Scottish identity,” she said. “Scotland is where I have lived the most so far in my life.
“A lot of my artistic life is in Scotland and I am really glad to be opening in Glasgow because many of the qualities I see in Medea are amongst the women I was aligned to in Glasgow.”
She added: “It is a piece of art – it is not a documentary but Glasgow is there as an embrace. Medea and I more than once would have been caught sharing a conspiratorial coffee at The Left Bank in Glasgow.”
The message she is hoping to put across when Medea opens at the Òran Mór next week is that humour is a much-needed oxygen in any setting.
“No matter how dark it gets, if you are able to keep a balance with humour, it will give you perspective,” she said.
“There is a becoming that happens despite the trauma. Not because of it but despite it. The message is also that you write your own narrative because I think a lot of folk get trapped in people’s perceptions of who they are.
“It’s about reclaiming your own narrative and I think that is as much for the women walking the streets of Glasgow as those walking the streets of Tehran.”
Nazli added: “Across time, humans have long been through complexities striving for equal rights, equitable human rights, and all I can hope for is that with each generation coming with each artwork made, we find better ways to have a conversation that benefits us all.”
Medea On The Mic is at A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór from June 10-15.
