TEHRAN-The play “Collaborators” written by Scottish screenwriter and dramatist John Hodge and directed by Parisa Mohammadi is on stage at Iranshahr Theater in Tehran.

The 2011 play is about the surreal fantasy of a relationship between two historical figures, Mikhail Bulgakov, the prominent Russian writer, and Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union.

The play takes place from 1938 to 1940, when Stalin was implementing the Great Purge in which several million people were exiled, imprisoned, or executed. 

It is a fictional device to examine the conflict experienced by a writer who is trying to portray a recognizable depiction of the human condition in a tyrannical world that systematically represses such expression.

Bulgakov did receive a phone call from Stalin out of the blue at an earlier stage in his career in 1930 in which he was favored with a new post. He knew that the dictator admired his work and followed his output.

No formal collaboration between Stalin and Bulgakov existed but the figure of Stalin as a monster inside Bulgakov's mind existed, and this was reinforced physically through the NKVD, the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.

The play happens in Moscow, 1938; a dangerous place to have a sense of humor; and even more so a sense of freedom. Mikhail Bulgakov, living among dissidents, stalked by secret police, has both. And then he's offered a poisoned chalice: a commission to write a play about Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday.

“Collaborators” embarks on a surreal journey into the fevered imagination of the writer as he loses himself in a macabre and disturbingly funny relationship with the omnipotent subject of his drama.

Hodge's blistering play depicts a lethal game of cat and mouse through which the appalling compromises and humiliations inflicted on any artist by those with power are held up to scrutiny.

John Hodge, 60, has written numerous works. “Collaborators,” his first play, won the 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Ramin Sayyardashti, Mohammad-Sadegh Malek, Vahid Nafar, Reyhaneh Salamat, Mohammad Niazi, Sahar Vasegh, and Mostafa Ahadi are in the cast of “Collaborators” among others.

The play will remain on stage until January 16 at the Iranshahr Theater located in Artists Park on North Mousavi Street, Taleqani Street.

SS/SAB