CC BY
8у
32 Wschodnioeuropejskie Czasopismo Naukowe (East European Scientific Journal)#3(19), 2017 ИЗЯ
ИСКУССТВОВЕДЕНИЕ
Bakhtiyar Yakubov,
The state institute of arts and culture of Uzbekistan,
Senior researcher
THE INTERPRETATION OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS IN MODERN UZBEK DRAMATURGY
ABSTRACT. The theatre art is considered to be one of the means of giving a social idea to society and people. The fact that it can leave a lasting and unforgettable impression on people's minds and hearts may have an effective result in tackling the global problems that arise the feeling of worry in all people and lessening their detrimental impact. This very issue will be portrayed in this article in the example of modern Uzbek dramaturgy. The plays that are being written by contemporary playwrights will be analyzed and their characteristics that are related to the humanity will be revealed...
KEY WORDS: global problems, behavioral problems, spiritual crisis, theatre, dramaturgy, stage interpretation...
Globalization is considered to be one of the mostly-used concepts nowadays. There is surely a reason for that. In as much as, globalization is an increase in interdependence of different people, zones and countries [1, 819]. The fact that the information in one part of the world reflects in another part of the globe in a few seconds indicates that we are living in an intense period and the pace of life is increasing. Even though the reduction of distances and the integration among nations are positive phenomena, naturally, this trend has also some drawbacks. Now, no nation, not a single country nor an individual in the world can say that a particular problem does not concern them. As a result, global problems, that is to say, "the number of issues that concern the whole world and humanity in regard to their coverage and scope" [5, 92] is on the rise. For example, despite the fact that solutions to problems including catastrophic pollution of the environment; the risk of nuclear war and the problem of maintaining peace around the world; the disappearance of biological diversity; an increase in the consumption of natural resources and a decrease in resources (gas, oil, coal, potable water and non-ferrous metals); global warming; the depletion of the ozone layer; an increase in the number of people suffering from cardiovascular and oncological diseases and AIDS; demographic problems (the risk of a dramatic increase or a significant decrease in the population number of certain nations); terrorism; the danger of asteroid; social inequality; an increase in the unemployment rate; violence and organized crime (human trading); drug addiction, pollution of seas and oceans; air pollution; acid rains; greenhouse effect; the problem of loneliness; the danger in the communication with Artificial Intelligence; gender equality; equality among nations; migration problem; the problem between the north and the south - the dramatic widening of the gap (poverty, hunger, illiteracy rate) between the rich and poor nations; an increase in false information among people and information attacks [10] are the same, there is only one fundamental solution for all the above-mentioned problems. In other words, the root of those problems is the same - the wrong attitude towards the nature, society as well as human beings. It is worth noting that all of those problems are caused by men and
all of them are connected with the spiritual world of human beings. Hence, their solutions are, first of all, directly related to filling the spiritual gap. There are so many ways of broadening one's spiritual world. One of them, without a doubt, is the theatre art. Theatre interprets a certain social idea literally through the live performance of actors in the eyes of the audience and leaves an unforgettable impression on people and has a strong spiritual impact on people. The theatre purifies people spiritually. The theatre serves as an important means of demonstrating, solving and reducing these global problems to an extent that is possible now.
There are some problems among global ones; they endanger people's personal life, freedom, peace in the society, stable development directly. Therefore, a lot of plays that are dedicated to these problems have been created in Uzbek theatre and they tried to attract audience's attention. Although theatre is a synthesis art, dramaturgy plays a more important role compared to other components in interpreting ideas that affect people's minds literally. In as much as, ideas and thoughts of the performance form in the play. Looking at the issue from this perspective, the responsibility of expressing a quick opinion on burning issues of our modern era and stating strong opinions about them falls on the shoulders of playwrights. One can proudly say that our playwrights realized this responsibility, social task in a timely and right manner. As a result, several plays have been written. For instance, "The death of the traitor", "Black cholera" (H. Rasul), "Be vigilant, people!", "They are not human beings", "Encirclement", "Staunchness" (U.Azim), "Happiness at the end of life" (Dilbar and Tilab Makhmudovs), "Creatures with one wing", "Poisonous drop" (I. Tursunova), "Anxiety", "Where is paradise", "Grandfather Aral", "Lonely Boat" (E. Azam), "Do not leave your motherland" (Q. Norqobil), "Children of the state", "Oydin" (R. Mu-hammadjonov), "The crowd" (N. Qobil), "The Lost" (T.Muhiddin), "The trap of villainy" (J. Yusupov), "My inner enemy" (G. Yuldosheva), "In the claws of white death" (A. Qudratov), "The echo of the century" (S.Azimov), "In the loop of poison" (M. Abdu-karimov), "There is a door to the paradise" (I. Akhmad-jonov), "Following the devil's ideas" (Q. Yunusov).
LIB
raraQr mm
Wschodnioeuropejskie Czasopismo Naukowe (East European Scientific Journal) #3(19), 2017 sL^S 33
Definitely, it is impossible to say that all the plays mentioned above are perfect from the literal point of view or that they depicted reality in Uzbek dramaturgy. Nevertheless, some of them attracted the audience indeed, won the prizes in several festivals. For example, "Grandfather Aral" by Erkin Azam won the first award in the Republican festival "We sing your praise, contemporary!". This play in which the problem of ecology was raised attracts people's attention since it is symbolic and meaningful. The play is described in one of the reviews written for the performance in this way: "The Aral tragedy that is causing concern around the globe today is not only an ecological danger, natural imbalance, but also it has turned into a serious spiritual phenomenon that affects nation's intellect. Hence, it is not a mystery that this topic is disturbing, troubling their hearts and agitating the intellectual layer of the society - creative people" [6, 14]. Surely, the person who is concerned with the problem that is worrying the whole world looks at the Aral issue vigilantly. The problem seems to belong to Central Asian Zone only at one glance. However, the fact that salt of the Aral Sea that is drying up is being found at distances located thousands of kilometers far from it nowadays means that the whole world should be concerned about this problem. The playwright depicts that the main character dreams about filling the Aral Sea with water. This is the outer layer of the play. If we look at this more deeply, human relationships are reflected around the drying-up of one sea. Values, respecting people, great dreams about kindness,.. .There has been a dramatic increase in the number of plays in which ecological problems are raised. One of such plays is "Do not leave the motherland" by Kuchkor Norkobil. The playwright raises the issue of conserving the environment and paying attention to this problem. When observing the performance, the spectator does not feel the crisis of the environment, nature but the crisis of spirituality. To the extent that the main conflict in the play occurs between the environmentally-friendly and those who use the nature for their own interests that is to say between progressive and regressive forces in a traditional way. Any spectator who watches the performance reads these ideas without any difficulties and extra means. In other words, people's spiritual crisis and its thoughts about its consequences arouse the same impression and impact on all people. It is possible to find out this from other opinions about the play: "The playwright tries to implant in the audience's minds the consequences of the spiritual crisis which we should not only witness with our eyes but feel deeply in our hearts in the example of ecological problems and the author achieves his goals at the end" [8, 36-38].
Reflecting global problems in the dramaturgy has special difficulties. One of these is to seek an answer to the question whether the theatre should raise any problem or is there any benefit in just depicting these problems. Initially, the problem that should be raised by dramaturgy ought to be the one that is most controversial and the one that has to be solved. Moreover, there should of course be a purpose and benefit in performing the play to the audience. In dramaturgy raising prob-
lems for which solutions can be found through the performance is required. In other words, the spectators should be able to think about themselves, their close relatives and affect them after watching the performance. Therefore, we do not see the plays about nuclear weapons on stages of the theatre. Because the people who are producing them and endangering humanity are not among the ordinary folk! It is possible to state the following based on the opinions mentioned above: it is natural that there are a lot of plays that are dedicated to global problems including terrorism, human trading, drug addiction and their negative consequences in today's Uzbek dramaturgy. The objective of the performances is not to introduce the audience to the existing problems. It tries to demonstrate the consequences of the risks, measure that can be taken in order not to face those dangers and it attempts to educate the people via the performances with literal figures. The fact that the problems which are being raised in plays that are written in this direction in modern Uzbek dramaturgy are of horrible nature, that we should always be vigilant and careful are expressed with the help of literary means. One of the plays that depicted reality in modern Uzbek dramaturgy was the play called "They are not human beings" by poet and playwright Usmon Azim. This play was staged by the name "Be vigilant, people!" by the director Valijon Umarov in Uzbek National Academic theatre. After that, it has been staged in several theatres of our republic. The play "Be vigilant, people!" is rich in true stories, collision and distinctive in a way that it is diverse. The problem of human trading that is causing concern all over the world nowadays constitutes the core of this play. It is not a secret to anybody that main victims of this problem are women. The fans of today's theatre know this well. Hence, taking one person in is not that exciting for the audience. It is not surprising if the vast majority would like to see the psychological, social aspects of this problem and realize the consequences as well as tragedies. Furthermore, the process of the deception of the main character, her pains and difficulties, her escape and return and the most interesting of all, her return to her family and her husband's attitude to these tragedies are bound to appeal to the audience. The majority of the audience of course feels that one of the characters will fall victim to the deception after finding out that the performance is dedicated to human trading. But not in all plays is it stated about the return of the woman who has fallen victim and her normal lifestyle after tragedies. In the play "Be vigilant, people!" the fact that the victim of the evilness - the woman has been forgiven by her spouse and even the fact that her husband decides to take revenge for her honour. It is true that this process goes smoothly. The husband - Akbar finds it difficult to accept what he heard from his wife. But, his love towards his wife encourages him to forgive her. The issue related to mentality will be raised at this point. The audience watches the scene in which Akbar hesitates to forgive his wife or not with great interest. Normally, Uzbek men do not accept back the women who have been raped violently, they divorce them. Forgiving is apparently difficult in this situation regardless of the men's nation.
u
34 Wschodnioeuropejskie Czasopismo Naukowe (East European Scientific Journal)#3(19), 2017 H3kl
The play is written in a form that depicts stories within stories. Akbar who was being questioned by the crime investigator says that he is ready for any punishment instead of answering his questions. Surely, the investigator along with the audience is interested in finding out the causes of this unusual case. The fact that Akbar revenged the people who posed a danger towards his family will be found out as a result of the conversation. But Akbar refuses to confess this. However, he tries to maintain his wife's reputation as a husband of dignity. And his wife - Mavjuda retells all the stories in detail so that the criminals would be punished. The main events start in a bright manner and a scene of a happy life in accordance with the rules of the drama. The drama replaces happiness in the course of events. As the events constitute the basis of the play, the playwright attempts to collect the events that can affect the audience's feelings, the events that reveal the negative aspects of the problem in a strong and sharp way. The playwright achieves his goal in one sense. Especially, the scene of the owner of the brothel in the performance - pimp woman's (actress Muyassar Berdikulova) drunk appearance in front of Mavjuda (actress Dilnoza Kuba-yeva) and Nafisa (actress Aziza Sharipova) and her conversation with them is very touchy. She treats those girls who were weakened at night having intimate contact with different men as just objects. She threatens to them that they should have a good rest as customers can come at any time. The girls who are fed up howl and they start to beg. Especially Mavjuda begs the pimp to let her go as she missed her 6-month old infant and she asks her to let her go for the sake of her child. But the pimp does not show any reaction when she talks about her family, infant and dignity. On the contrary to that, the pimp disdains their blandishment and advises the girls to enjoy life and be satisfied with life and earn a fortune in this way. The playwright managed to form a very good contrast at this point. When the pimp was talking about the joys of this world her wanderer daughter (actress Nigina Anorboyeva) came up to her and told her mother that she was going to her paramour. The mother asked her daughter without any surprise: "Which one are you meeting?" At this very point the spectators realize that even though the trapped girls looked like human beings, although they are trying to give birth to children and make them "happy" as normal people do, the audience deeply feels that they do not possess any humane characteristics. Specially, disdaining the pimp is brightly expressed in the character of Nafisa (A. Sharipova) who does not expect any goodness in this world. Mavjuda (D. Kubayeva) who has been living with her body only realizes that her life has been shattered wants to escape from the brothel and continues to beg the pimp...
The idea of the performance is expressed in the final conversation of the colonel Jabborov (actor Tesha Muminov) and Akbar (actor Asadullo Nabiyev). Jabborov that was questioning Akbar who was keeping the reason why he intended to murder a man secret asks him "Why did you hurt 'innocent', 'poor' and 'oppressed' people?" Jabborov maintains a serious facial expression when talking about it. Even though his words were emphasized and uttered ironically, it was
slightly difficult to grasp their real meaning. Hence, Akbar gets annoyed with that and questions the colonel back: "oppressed?" he answers as if he was talking to himself and a loud yell that has been hidden in his heart comes as an explosion from the deepest point of his heart: "They are not human beings!". Afterwards, he had to reveal the criminals disgusting felonies. He answers the colonel's following question "Why did you not tell the authorities?" in this way: "It is my personal business". Jabborov (T. Muminov) comes up to the front part of the stage stares at the audience for a long time and says in regret: "It is not your or somebody's personal business, it is a concern for everybody!". It is the whole nation's, the whole Uzbekistan's and the whole humanity's concern! They trampled not only your but whole Uzbekistan's honor down, they took away their dignity. Therefore, it is wrong to say that it is my personal business! He says: "We must fight these villains together!" In fact, as we mentioned before, global problems are the issues that concern whole humanity. In particular, violence towards humankind does not come out of nowhere. It is the consequence of violence by someone who turns out to be animal or apathy of someone who consider themselves a human being. If everybody acts like they wish, there will be a chaos as those criminals wanted and the crime rate will increase dramatically. If the problem is investigated deeply, regrets give us a hard time. Human trading developed so much that even one or two countries cannot stop it, let alone one or two people. Its coverage crosses borders now. There are huge webs that it is impossible to know where to start. So, all people around the world should join their efforts to fight this problem. Although only underdeveloped and developing countries faced this problem at first, the citizens of advanced nations are also suffering from it today. Therefore, no one is insured against this problem and any apathy might have deadly consequences.
As regards to human trading, it is obvious that this problem emerged and developed in Uzbekistan as well. Therefore, our playwrights tried to look at the problem from different perspectives and to express its consequences in a more touchy way. One of these plays is "Oydin" by playwright Rikhsivoy Muhammadjonov. This play has been a huge phenomenon in Uzbek theatre art in recent years. It was staged simultaneously in several theatres of our country. Even though directors approached differently towards staging, the main idea of the play stayed the same. The playwright looks at human trading from rather an unexpected perspective in his play. The main character of the play - Oydin is a journalist. She works in television. She leads a happy life with her husband and children. It is apparent from the initial scenes of the performance that Oydin is madly in love with her husband and at the same time the husband treats his wife sincerely. But pure and honest Oydin's husband was a criminal who dealt with deceiving girls and selling them to foreign countries. This secret was revealed after Oydin went to the rehabilitation centre and talked to the victims of human trading. The playwright gives the main character two options. This is a classic style! However, there should be personal interests of the character in one container of the
LIB
raraQr mm
Wschodnioeuropejskie Czasopismo Naukowe (East European Scientific Journal) #3(19), 2017 sL^S 35
scale and even though contrary to his interests, there should be others' (humankind's) interests in the other scale so that the real face of the character is revealed and his humane ideals would appear clearly. The fact that the character faces a moral dilemma makes spectators contemplate. It is true, why would anyone want to lose his/her happy and sweet family? Who can forego their interests and think about others' in this world where personal interests are prioritized? At this very point, there will be a need to create a character in the play. Playwrights of all times have made an effort to come up with a character who epitomizes an ideal person typifying the characteristics of a certain period or caste. And creating a figure of such a character has always been challenging [4, 107]. Despite the fact that the playwright ought to have radicalize the events, increase the number of inner conflicts in the play, being able to come up with a character who can forego his happiness for the sake of others and who fights against wickedness and malice...
In spite of the fact that each person has to have personal views in matters including facing the problem, looking for measures and getting rid of it, there are some alternative approaches towards this situation in contemporary Uzbek dramaturgy. Particularly, the play called "Crowd" by Nasrullo Kobil states that we should not always blame the youth for being drug addicts, but also consider the factors including paying not enough attention to them and ignoring them. Playwright even demonstrates the case in which one can break the habit of consuming drugs, in other words he illustrates how the sincere love towards the person can give him/her a new life. The pure love of the girl who loves the main character - the drug addict boosts his confidence and he tries to get healed. Admittedly, it does not seem believable from the realistic point of view, but it is certain from the psychological perspective that someone's love towards you encourages you to start a new life. Moreover, there are a plenty of plays dedicated to the fight against AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. One of them that adopts a different approach is the play "Lost" by Tulkin mukhiddinov. The playwright tries to attract the attention of the public towards this problem and encourages everyone to fight against this problem. It is pointed out that this very characteristic of the play was the most positive aspect in reviews about it: "The solution to this deadly disease that came into existence at the early 80s has still not been found even though 30 years have passed. Naturally, the lack of information on the part of ordinary folk about this disease which leads to death and the lack of attention on the part of relative authorities result in severe consequences" [7, 9].
Almost all the plays created in contemporary Uzbek dramaturgy that are dedicated to global problems have been staged in a realistic style. From one point of view, this seems to be intended to affect the audience emotionally. And this is true. Because, the share of modern performances in Uzbek theatre is not huge. Furthermore, as there is a specific purpose in performances that reflect global problems, modernism that has been intended for the audience to draw conclusions from might not always produce desired results. "Living in
isolation from the global cultural process is not possible today. At the same time, our national culture continues to stay as a rich heritage and an indispensable part of our theatre traditions. One advantage of the national theatre is that it reflects modern people's outlook." [9, 11-13]. It is possible to name the theatre art whose purpose is to convey a specific opinion a social institution. The drama that delivers the social idea in the play should include the general truth. Expression of global problems in the theatre, and in the dramaturgy to be more specific, is very vital for today's period. Because all the global problems are the ones to which solutions can be found and they can be tackled. Nevertheless, there are some hindrances that can be obstacles in our efforts to solve them - informational attacks, villain forces and their impact on young people's minds. The negative forces are perverting their propaganda via the internet and other means of mass media. And this indicates that we must be vigilant to any ideological attacks. This is reinforced in the following quote: Ideological polygons are of greater influence than nuclear polygons" [2,113]. One of the means of resistance against ideological attacks and encouraging people towards good deeds is of course the theatre! The theatre should lead and guide people towards grandeur and great ideas. The greatness is related to sacrificing oneself to defend the interests, freedom and liberty of the motherland. The greatness in people's acts must contain a grandiose purpose, noble intention, being a role model for many, exemplary bravery and virtue...[3, 75]. Whenever a person lives feeling other people's pain they will not be ego-centered or commit inhumane acts. The theatre has a vital role to play in implanting such a feeling in people among other forms of art. The life-like process that is going on in the eyes of the audience is bound to have a great impact on them.
References:
1. Giddens A. 2002. Sociology. Tashkent, Uzb: "East" The head publishing house of typography joint-stock company.
2. Karimov I. 2008. Great spirituality - unconquerable force. Tashkent, Uzb: Publishing house -"Spirituality".
3. Nishonova O. 2012. Aesthetic essence of Uzbek ethno-culture. Tashkent, Uzb: Publishing house-"Science".
4. Yuldashev T., Tulyakhodjaeva M. 1990. Uzbek dramaturgy on the theatre stage. Tashkent, Uzb: Publishing house- "Science".
5. Philosophy The encyclopedia. 2004. Tashkent, Uzb: The publishing house of a national society of Uzbekistan's philosophers.
6. Abdurasulov S. 2016. The waves of the sea of pain. Theatre, 2 (12): 14.
7. Gaffarov L. 2009. The incurables. Theatre, 3 (8): 9.
8. Sattarova G. 2016. The problem of nature and people. Theatre, 2 (14): 36-38.
9. Tulakhodjaeva M. 2012. Globalization and national traditions. Theatre, 4 (7): 11-13.
10. www.wikipedia.org
