Les Mis = Iran

After the 4th of July weekend Ashley and Mom and I went to see the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's production of Les Miserables. Ashley taught "Can You Hear the People Sing" in French last year (she insists on pronouncing it "A la volonte de POOP"), and I think she's been teaching Gavroche's "Little People" song ("isn't that supposed to be sung by Napoleon?" I asked). Also, one of her co-workers was in the cast (and did a great job), so we had every excuse to go see it, and our impulsive decision was well rewarded by a great production.

Ashley said the staging was toned down a bit because they couldn't afford the expense of a rotating stage, but it was very effective nonetheless. Some of the leads were veterans of the original Broadway cast and all of the other performers lived up to their standards, I think, except for Eponine who sang a little too pop-style for my taste, and the kids, who I shouldn't be too hard on even if Cosette swapped some words around and Gavroche's song had to be abridged. Also, M. Thenardier was HUGE, easily 6' 6", towering over Jean Valjean, who was himself of appropriate size to lift carts etc.

I'd never seen a production before, but as the music started I realized that I had listened to it repeatedly on tape cassette decades back when it was one of Maya's favorites. I think she even had the poster up in her room after she came back from college.

But watching the show the theme that came constantly and depressingly to my mind was Iran. I need to read a little bit of the backstory for Les Miserables (actually, I just bought the whole book) before making comparisons about the actual events depicted in the story, but based on the stage production it is hard to miss the parallels.

The rebellion by the students is one thing, maybe just striking because they are starting to seem young to me. The French students drinking in the taverns is parallel to the secret parties held by Marjane Satrapi, her friends, and her parents in "Persepolis". The young and rebellious find their own space away from the government to be themselves and make their plans for life and for change.

Les Mis hints at some of the difficulties of even knowing what is going on in the chaos of a revolution. There is the infiltration of the rebels by the policeman Javert and his eventual mock execution. Who can be trusted? Who is informing on who? There is the escape of Jean Valjean through the sewers. Who really died? What happened to the body? Those are the foggy uncertainties which the twitterers were working to dispel, and which still shroud the backstage maneuvering of the political leadership in Iran.

The big difference of course is that the Iranian opposition is not violent, and doesn't hope to oppose the regime by force. The rebels in Les Mis had the violent examples of the French Revolution and American Independence as the mechanisms for change in society, while we have the more civilized examples of Gandhi, Mandela, and King. In both cases the willingness to face lethal violence, either certainly or just probably, is shared.

But the biggest parallel is between Eponine and Neda, young women carried along by the revolution but not at its heart, and killed as collateral damage of the government's suppression of dissent. In Les Mis Eponine's death is tragic because it is forgotten. The rebellion fails, and Marius runs off happily with Cosette, and Eponine lies dead and unclaimed.

Hopefully the Iranian political conflict will be decided by public opinion within Iran and without and will not be wiped out by a Stalinist purge. If it remains a primarily political conflict then hopefully Neda will be able to remain, however tragically and unintentionally, a symbol of the evils of violent repression and a tool for the reformation of Iranian government and society.