Prisoners laugh
Yerkir.am
July 28, 2006
We have already informed our readers that on the initiative of
"Samvel Baghdasarian" LLC the Armenian government has officially
declared April 1 as the day of humor and satire.
This company in cooperation with the Armenian Union of Satirists have
always been trying to bring humor and satire into our daily lives
even before the official day of humor was declared. The importance
of humor cannot be overestimated in our extremely politicized society
that carries the burden of social dissatisfaction.
Samvel Baghdasarian and his colleagues perform in all regions of
Armenia as well as in Stepanakert. They organized a competition of
satiric works.
Over 60 authors participated in this competition. The winners’ works
received prizes and were staged by different satirist actors. Samvel
Baghdasarian has recently come up with an interesting initiative. With
the assistance of the Ministry of Justice and personal assistance
from Prime Minister Andranik Margarian the Armenian humorists are
performing in penitentiary institutions. Such a performance was held
at Erebuni Penitentiary institution on July 25.
Head of Erebuni Penitentiary Tigran Navasardian told us that after
years of non-operation and staying empty the institution’s club hall
s currently under renovation. Therefore, the performance was held at
the institution’s cafeteria. The performance was a great success. The
actors were more than satisfied with outbursts of laughter accompanying
the performance.
"I used to think that since the prisoners are isolated from the
society they might fail to understand some of the jokes," Baghdasarian
says. "Because at least to understand political humor and parodies they
would need to be following the developments of social and political
life. However, yesterday’s and today’s performances showed that this
is not the case."
The prisoners and the staff of the penitentiary were laughing at
the jokes. Director of the institution Tigran Navasardian informed
that the last time a cultural event was held at the penitentiary was
in 2005 when Armenian singers had a performance here.
The performances will continue in similar institutions in Abovian,
Yerevan and Sevan. Through their performance the actors were sending
a message to the prisoners – a message of patience, law obedience
reminding them that their relatives and families were waiting for
them beyond the barbed wire. Laughter has a great impact on people
and we can assume that the impressions of this performance will stay
with the prisoners for a long time.
H.Y.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
