UNIQUENESS OF BEHBUDI’S DRAMATURGY

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes the first steps of Jadid theater, which is the theoretical basis of modern Uzbek theater. The emergence of national dramaturgy in Turkestan at the beginning of the 20th century, the expression of the ideas of the Jadids in the work of the great thinker Mahmudhoja Behbudi “Padarkush or the state of an uneducated child”, the peculiarities of the characters’ personalities are comparatively studied. The author’s research on expanding and enlightening people’s thinking is described. It has also been proven that the lack of generosity, arrogance, aimlessness, and frivolity that arise as a result of illiteracy are “national tragedies”. The work’s call for today’s youth to be educated, its aspects that can be applied to theatrical art, and its novelty are discussed.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В статье анализируются первые шаги джадидского театра, который является теоретической основой современного узбекского театра. Возникновение национальной драматургии в Туркестане в начале XX века, выражение идей джадидов в произведении великого мыслителя Махмудходжи Бехбуди “Падаркуш или состояние необразованного ребенка” сравниваются с особенностями характеров персонажей. Описаны исследования автора по расширению и просвещению мышления людей. Также доказано, что отсутствие щедрости, высокомерие, бесцельность и легкомыслие, возникающие в результате неграмотности, являются “национальными трагедиями”. Произведение призывает сегодняшнюю молодежь к образованию, обсуждаются его аспекты, которые можно применить к театральному искусству, и его новизна.

Keywords: dramaturgy, jadids, conflict, press, idea, theater, national tragedy, style.

Ключевые слова: драматургия, джадиды, конфликт, идея, театр, национальная трагедия, форма.

Introduction                                   

The article seeks to answer the question that troubled the theater reformer Stanislavsky: “How does the analysis of a theatrical work differ from the analysis of others?” In search of an answer to his question, the author wrote a six-volume book entitled “Director’s Examples of Stanislavsky”. As a result, the reformer created an original method for analyzing a theatrical work - to determine “the conditions given by the author”. We want to analyze Mahmudhoja Behbudi’s play “Padarkush or the state of an uneducated child” based on the requirements of Aristotle’s work “Poetics”. The goal is to prove that this stage work is a drama that most vividly expresses the ideas of the Turkestan Jadids, as well as to reveal the essence of the term “national tragedy”. We also want to discuss the unique aspects of the play “Padarkush or the State of an Uneducated Child” and the opportunities it offers directors. To make the analysis understandable to everyone, we will explain the plot of the work. The play is designated as a four-scene national tragedy. The first scene - one of the country’s wealthy people enters the rich man’s house to inform the religious official about the incident, knowing that the illiterate child is indulging in pleasure because he didn’t educate his only son, and the Domla - a religious official who lost the argument and strived for innovation - leaves upset. On this issue, an intellectual - an educated Muslim who accepted European culture - enters to solve the problem, and his call remains unanswered with the sleeping snoring of the rich man. The second scene takes place in a tavern or cafe. To entertain the illiterate, unskilled youths led by the rich man’s son, Toshmurod, a woman needs money to be invited to a party. The third scene - a boy’s son and his partner come to the rich man’s house to steal money. The father woke up, a murder had occurred. They took the money. The fourth scene - a tavern, the feast is in full swing, a woman has arrived. Having learned of the murder, the police arrested everyone. From the intellectual’s tongue: an uneducated child is a curse upon the people.

Materials and methods

The article uses comparative, critical, and logical analysis, as well as typological and conceptual interpretation methods. They are important for a more complete disclosure of the ideological, educational, and moral essence of the work, a clearer explanation of the author’s goals and aspirations, and the identification of the possibilities and unique features of Behbudi’s dramaturgy.

Results and discussion

The author of “Jadid Drama”, Shuhrat Rizayev, writes the following about the national theater founded by the Jadids in 1914: The Jadid intellectuals, who awakened the nation with the light of enlightenment and dreamed of the triumph of freedom and progress, understood the theater as one of the great deeds on their path, and by striving in this direction, they achieved remarkable results in a short period [6, p. 51]. The reason for this was that Mahmudkhoja Behbudi from Samarkand was recognized and glorified in the press as a great thinker, founder of national dramaturgy, a theorist who was able to reveal the ideas of the Jadids in the first stage interpretation of the new form of theater. Because our Jadid ancestor Behbudi was recognized as a great thinker who developed the theory of national theatrical art, created the dramaturgy that forms its basis, staged it, and proved in practice the spiritual-educational, moral-artistic, ideological power and spiritual influence of the performance in its stage interpretation.

The work “Padarkush or the state of an uneducated child” gave rise to the theatrical movement in the Turkestan region, organized it in a large city, led to its development in practice, and served as a beacon for the Jadids. When comparing the first theater created by the Jadids in Turkestan with the famous European theaters, its exemplary significance becomes clear. But this was the first step. To prevent this process from stopping, in a 1913 article titled “Theatre in Europe”, the “Oyna” journal recalled that in culturally advanced countries like France or Italy, there was only one theatre per 66,000-65,000 inhabitants, with a total of 596 theatrical groups in France and 544 in Italy. Supporting this aspiration, he specifically emphasizes that the planning to establish two or three national theaters for millions of people in Turkestan was a cause for concern for the editorial staff [9, p. 8-23].

The Jadids working at the editorial office of “Oyna” journal knew that Mahmudkhoja Behbudi wrote his national tragedy “Padarkush or the State of an Uneducated Child” in 1911 for theatrical staging, but they were also aware that he couldn’t get permission to stage it. According to Shukhrat Rizayev, two years later, with the permission of the censor’s “Press Affairs Committee” in Tiflis, it could be staged in the Caucasus region”, the work was published as a separate book in Samarkand in accordance with Resolution No. The publication of “The Patricide or the Condition of an Uneducated Child” truly marked the birth of the Uzbek national theater [6, p. 53].

The press notes that the audience consisted of Russian, Tatar, Uzbek, Armenian, Tajik, Iranian, and Jewish spectators, and that the Tatar troupe that performed after “Padarkush” used many Russian phrases in their comedy, and in this respect, the skill of Uzbek performers was higher than theirs [4, p. 15]. Thus, the journal “Oyna” informed its readers about the theatrical troupes formed in the Turkestan region and the works they staged. This magazine was published once a week, with photographs, Uzbek poetry, articles of various directions and topics, and analytical materials, as well as announcements - it was also distributed to countries such as the Caucasus, Tatarstan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey [5, p. 13].

The author defines the genre of “Padarkush” as a “national tragedy”. Behbudi calls illiteracy, the humiliation of the intelligentsia, the greed of the rich, the patricide of children, the parochialism of young people, and their indulgence in mass revelry a national tragedy. This means that he was aware of the commentary on the tragedy in Aristotle’s “Poetics”. As Aristotle noted, the Greek playwright Sophocles, in his work “Oedipus Rex”, calls the suffering of the people a tragedy. He considers the main character’s saving of his homeland from the plague tragedy as heroism. Thus, while the playwright sought answers to questions such as what a king should be like and how a person should live, Behbudiy seeks answers in his stage work to questions such as how child-rearing, literacy issues should be resolved, and who is responsible for moral matters. He considers the indulgence of illiterate youth in revelry a “national tragedy”.

For the founder of national dramaturgy, the state of his homeland at the beginning of the 20th century is a social tragedy. Behbudi believes that the cause of this tragedy lies in illiteracy, and by staging his work, he places a “mirror” in front of the audience, this style encourages the Jadids to look at the state of the people from different angles, and to seek solutions to the national tragedies they have witnessed. Thus, illiteracy, indifference to knowledge and intellectualism, greed, neglect of children’s upbringing, the involvement of illiterate youth in the culture of others, everyday indifference that misleads them, lack of craftsmanship, and other vices are national tragedies. Thus, Behbudi is the playwright who first introduced the genre of national tragedy and the technique of holding a “mirror” to the viewer to convey it to the national theater.

What does the author call upon the reader or viewer with this work? Is his idea clear? According to Aristotle’s explanation – “the idea is to prove the existence or non-existence of something”, while Behbudi argues that there is no literacy and upbringing, that the solution is to acquire knowledge, that the ignorant will be humiliated to the point of patricide, and that an illiterate child will inevitably lead parents who do not educate their children to disaster. Thus, the Jadids are still glorified because they understood that the basis of any development is enlightenment, because they devoted all their potential to the idea of educating young people.

In drama theory, after A.P. Chekhov’s work “The Seagull”, such concepts as “open conflict” and “closed conflict” appeared. The reason for this is that the characters in “The Seagull” have unspoken regrets and “closed” feelings for each other. The interest of the viewer, who feels that the characters are hiding their feelings, the development of the story increases even more. This process is the driving force of  “closed conflict”. In “Open Conflict”, the characters openly pour out their feelings related to the events witnessed by the audience from the stage, as a result of which the audience understands why this character acts this way, remains silent, and why he speaks this way. This is called “open conflict”. 

In Behbudi’s stage work, there are both types of conflict: the struggle of the rich man with Domla and Ziyoli is an open conflict, while the behavior of young people, their deception of parents to hide their everyday feelings, indulgence in pleasure because they are illiterate, unplanned, and unskilled, is a “closed conflict” that makes everyone think.

The author’s choice of such a multifaceted style convinces us of the high ideology of the Jadids, that ignorance is a national tragedy. The style of expressing the characters’ feelings through open and closed conflict increases the emotional impact of the performance. Perhaps the theatrical work, with its aforementioned distinctive features, quickly spread throughout the entire Turkestan region. If young people are not raised and guided to the right path while they are coming full of strength and enthusiasm, it is also a national tragedy that youth turns towards recklessness.

Conclusion

Behbudi was able to turn his theoretical views, published in the article “What is Theater?,” into a spectacle at the level of a national tragedy in the stage work “Padarkush or the state of an uneducated child”. The discussion of the solution to the problems associated with the call to science, which was the idea of the Jadids, in the presence of the characters Domla and Ziyoli, based on the events that took place, with the participation of spectators, indicates that Behbudi is aware of the “apart” element in the Italian theater “Del art”.

Thus, the fact that “Padarkush” is a unique stage work is evident in the following.

1. Behbudi created a version in which the number of characters in “Padarkush” can be distributed among the members of the newly created national theater troupe in Samarkand in 1913.
2. He calls the lack of generosity of the rich, the illiteracy of the youth, their aimlessness, and their indulgence in life a national tragedy, and he opened the way to define the stage works created by the Jadids after him as a vice that hinders the development of the nation and to call it a national tragedy.
3. The author, with the help of Jadid characters such as Domla - a religious figure and Ziyoli - a modern Muslim, discusses the issues of illiteracy, lack of purpose, lack of craftsmanship, and lack of generosity in the presence of the audience and reveals the essence of the Jadid idea.
4. The fact that young people deceive their parents, gather at night, and indulge in pleasure proves that it is a social tragedy for society.
5. It emphasizes that immorality arising from illiteracy always inevitably ends in punishment and calls on all of us to be knowledgeable.
6. At the end of the work, Ziyoli addresses the audience in an apparatus style - concluding the discussion with the thought that “there is no other way to eliminate these works than to read and teach”. The curtain closes.
7. From the above, the character of each character, their significance in revealing the idea of the work, their contribution to the development of events, and the unique aspects of “Padarkush” become clear. We hope that the form of brief analysis arising from the requirements of the article will be useful in the director’s work with the actors and in the creators’ creation of the stage character of the characters.

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