TEHRAN – Director Peyman Qadimi plans to stage a play based on Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal’s novella “Too Loud a Solitude” in the courtyard of Tehran’s Vahdat Hall during late July.

Saber Abar, a star of Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning movie “A Separation”, will perform the play renamed “Heh”.

Qadimi dramatized the story based on a Persian translation of “Too Loud a Solitude” by Parviz Davai. 

To avoid the disturbance of those nearby from noise pollution, the voices of the performances can be received through headphones of cellphones. In addition, the organizers have made an obligation to respect health protocols.  

Due to political censorship, Hrabal himself published “Too Loud a Solitude” in 1976. However, it was published officially in 1989.

The novella tells the story of an old man named Hanta who works as a paper crusher in Prague, using his job to save and amass astounding numbers of rare and banned books. He is an obsessive collector of knowledge. The book was translated into English by Michael Henry Heim.

Hanta uses metaphorical language and surreal descriptions, and much of the book is concerned with just his inner thoughts, as he recalls and meditates on the outlandish amounts of knowledge he has attained over the years. He brings up stories from his past and imagines the events of whimsical scenarios. He contemplates the messages of the vast numbers of intellectuals which he has studied. 

The main theme of “Too Loud a Solitude” is of the permanence and intangibility of ideas which may, for a time, come to manifest themselves beautifully in the form of books and words. Another theme involves the conflict between Hanta’s simple way of life and that of the new and ambitious socialist order.

A live-action film adaptation was released in Czech in 1996, one year before Hrabal’s death.

In 2007, a stop-motion film was released, directed by Genevieve Anderson and starring Paul Giamatti in the role of Hanta.

Photo: Saber Abar will be the sole actor of the play “Heh”.

MMS/YAW