TEHRAN – A play about the life story of Abdolhossein Borunesi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, will go on stage at the Sayeh Hall of Tehran’s City Theater Complex on Thursday. 

Borunesi was martyred during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. His military life as a soldier during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah and his activities during the Islamic Revolution and post-revolution life will be shown in the play, which will be directed by Morteza Shahkaram.

A major part of the play will portray Borunesi as the commander of Javad ul-Aemah (AS) Brigade 18, an IRGC combat unit that took part in Operation Badr in March 1985.

Borunesi was martyred during the operation and his soldiers failed to return his remains. However, some of his personal effects, including his ID tag, were excavated 27 years after his death along with a skeleton in the area where the operation had been carried out.   

Mohsen Pushai, Masud Shami-Khatuni, Parva Aqajani, Farid Kiamarsi, Iman Solgi, Ahmad Samimi, Sala Mosayyebzadeh, Majid Rahmati and Shahkaram himself are the members of the cast. 

The play is from a collection of plays on Iranian veterans martyred during the Iran-Iraq war, which was unveiled by the General Office for Dramatic Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance at Tehran’s City Theater Complex in February 2020.

The collection titled “The Bright Pen” contains four books, each of which is comprised of two plays.

Book one contains “Or Not Being” by Kamran Shahlai and “All My Brothers” by Reza Goshtasb. The second book has “Heliborne” by Mohsen Azimi and “Season of Red Sapphire” by Neda Sabeti. 

“From Behind His Shoulders” by Mehdi Nasiri and “Borunesi” by Shahkaram are the plays in the third book of the collection. Book four includes “A Drum That Trembled Underfoot” by Maryam Mansuri and “Scarf” by Ladan Shirmard.

Photo: A poster for the play “Borunesi”, which will be directed by Morteza Shahkaram at the Sayeh Hall of the Tehran’s City Theater Complex.

RM/MMS/YAW