The play The Second Mehr, written by Jalal Tehrani (May-June 2005), is a poetic, symbolic, and mythic work. Inspired by the structure of ancient Greek tragedy (including the chorus, parodos, episodes, stasima, and exodos), it explores power, lust, the pact (mehr1), creation, and the recurring cycle of nothingness. The story takes place in a humble house at the far end of the desert.
A witch-like woman recounts that over the years, in ten-year cycles, twelve defeated and thirsty kings have taken refuge in her hut. To taste magic and the dream of the beloved, each king paid with a part of his body (an eye, an ear, the tongue, a foot, the liver, and so on) to the woman’s dagger. In this way twelve kings take shape, blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed, who become wandering beggars and are led by a character called the born-and-bred beggar From the gathered organs, dreams, and mehr taken from the twelve kings, the woman creates a complete being named “the Thirteenth King.”
- The seventh month of Iranian calendar