Curtains go up for Fajr theater festival 

January 17, 2018 - 18:48

TEHRAN – The 36th Fajr International Theater Festival will open at different venues across Tehran tomorrow with performances by dozens of troupes from Iran and other countries.

Iranian director Mahmudreza Karimi will stage Bertolt Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” at Tehran’s City Theater Complex on the first night, while a troupe of young actors directed by Masud Delkhah will perform an adaption of German writer Klaus Mann’s novel “Mephisto” at Molavi Hall.

Tonight’s schedule also features Peter Weiss’s “Marat/Sade” that will be directed by Iman Eskandari at Hafez Hall, and “The History Boys” by Ashkan Khilnejad at the Iranshahr Theater Complex.

“Entre-Cabanes”, an exposition by Ramona Poenaru and Gael Chaillat from France will be set up at the Tehran Book Garden today in the off-stage section. The exposition will be on view during the festival.

Entre-Cabanes is a multimedia installation, which invites the public to experience the practice of architecture.

About 200 troupes from Iran and other countries will perform during the event, which will be running until January 29.

Leman Yilmaz from Turkey, Lucia van Heteren from the Netherlands, Niklaus Helbling from Switzerland, and Fatemeh Motamed-Arya and Behzad Qaderi, both from Iran, will be judging the plays competing in the international section.

The jury members of the national section are Nader Borhani-Maranad and Mohsen Alikhani from Iran, and Ghorbonali Nusrat Sabir from Tajikistan.

Nineteen plays have been selected to go on stage in the international section including “The Package” by Shusaku Takeuchi and “Hamlet” by Christopher Ruping, both from Germany.

The Paris-based Iranian director Afshin Ghaffarian will stage “Too Loud a Solitude”. “Shirtology” by Jérome Bel and “Laundry of legends” by Jassem Hindi, both from France, are also competing in the international section.

Also included are “Bigmouth” by Valentijn Dhaenens from Belgium, “Invisible Cities” by Pino Di Buduo from Italy and “Guilty Landscapes” by Dries Verhoeven from the Netherlands.

Other plays are coming from Brazil, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Iraq, Georgia and Greece.

“The Celebration of Dialogue in Iran’s Celebration” is the motto of the festival.

Photo: A poster for the 36th Fajr International Theater Festival shows an image of “Entre-Cabanes”, an exposition by Ramona Poenaru and Gael Chaillat from France.

RM/MMS/YAW

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