TEHRAN – Ten troupes from across the world will perform during the 41st Fajr International Theater Festival, which opened in Tehran on Saturday.

Iraqi director Mohammad Moayyed’s troupe performed “Mercy Shot” twice at the Main Hall of the City Theater Complex on the opening day.

Two more performances have also been arranged for Sunday at the same place.

Another Iraqi troupe with director Javad Asadi will take “Amal” on stage at Molavi Hall on Monday.

Spanish director Txema Muñoz will stage “Lumière” (“Light”) at the Chaharsu Hall of the complex on January 26.

Waiting has never been so much fun. As if it were a silent movie, Muñoz wishes for the train to arrive. When it comes, his imagination goes beyond the station he is in. A light bulb, a jacket and his backpack transport him to a magical, endearing and comical place.

A stage adaptation of Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” will be directed by Hafiz Khalifa from Tunisia.

The play will go on stage at Vahdat Hall on January 27.

The narrative takes as its literal subject the state of the soul after death. It presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward, and describes Dante’s travels through hell, purgatory and heaven. Allegorically, the poem presents the soul’s journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin, followed by the penitent Christian life, which is then followed by the soul’s ascent to God.

Omani director Yousuf Al-Bulushi is competing at the festival with “Henna Pestle”, which will be performed at Bahdat Hall on January 28.

At the same date, Nazerzadeh Kermani Hall at the Iranshahr Theater Complex will host Jordanian director Ayad Al-Rimoni for his play “Naqoura Train”. His troupe will give one more performance the next day. 

Armenian director Ara Yernjakyan, the founder and artistic director of the Yerevan State Chamber Theater, has been invited to stage William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at the Main Hall of the City Theater Complex on January 29.

Russian writer Nikolay Mikhaylovich Karamzin’s 1792 story “Bednaya Liza” (“Poor Liza”), about a village girl who commits suicide after a tragic love affair, will be directed by his renowned compatriot Mark Rozovsky.

The most celebrated work of the Russian sentimental school will be staged at Vahdat Hall on January 30.

“Apátridas” (“Stateless”), a multimedia play divided into two monologues written by Carina Casuscelli will be staged by Brazilian director Lenerson Polonini at the Main Hall of the City Theater Complex on the same date.  

It is based on female and male characters from fragments of Greek myths and tragedies.

The festival will end with an adaptation of Nikolay Gogol’s short story “The Overcoat” (“Shinel”) by a Russian troupe at the City Theater Complex on January 31.

Published in 1842, “The Overcoat” is perhaps the best-known and most influential short fiction in all of Russian literature. 

Gogol’s story of government clerk Akaky Akakiyevich Bashmachkin combines a careful eye for detail with biting social satire on the banal evil of bureaucracy.

Photo: A file photo shows Brazilian director Lenerson Polonini’s troupe performing “Stateless”.

MMS/YAW