TEHRAN – Iranian stage actor Mehran Aslani will make his directorial debut with Russian writer Evgeny Schwartz’s 1943 play “The Dragon” that mocks Stalin’s government and totalitarianism.

The play will go on stage at the Nasser Khosrow Theater in Tehran on September 23, Aslani told the Persian Service of FNA on Monday. 

Paniz Khoshnik, Mohammad Moghani, Armin Eftekharzadeh, Yashar Hosseinzadeh, Atena Rasulzadeh, Arshia Ghaffari, Mehdi Asadi, and Aslani are the members of the cast. 

Aslani said that the play will be performed in Iran for the first time and added his teachers have been greatly surprised by the choice for his directorial debut.

The original play has 21 characters, but Aslani reduced the number to eight in order to make it easier to be performed.   

“I have taken a bit of risk because I love this play and we will go ahead with the help of my colleagues,” Aslani noted.  

“The Dragon” tells the story of the knight Lancelot, who sets out to slay the dragon. However, in his quest, he stumbles upon a community governed by a bureaucratic hierarchy using the dragon as an excuse to cover their own abuse of power.

Photo: A poster for “The Dragon”

MMS/YAW