TEHRAN-The play “The Good Doctor” written by the American playwright Neil Simon and directed by Mohammad Asadnia is on stage at Sahne Abi Cultural and Artistic Center in Tehran.

Davoud Monfared, Sasan Banihatam, Peyman Esmaeilzadeh, Hadiseh Hatami, Mehran Mahmoudi, Navid Naderi, Parisa Kamyabi, Reyhaneh Esfandiari, Mohammad Mafi, Mehdi Mohammadi, and Pouria Hamidi are in the cast among others.

“The Good Doctor” is a comedy with music written by Neil Simon. It consists of a series of short plays, based on short stories and other works of Russian writer Anton Chekhov, framed by a writer making comments on them.

A combination of Simon and Chekhov, the play is, by turns, charming, hilarious, sad, and touching. It centers around a writer, who speaks to the audience and shares his writing with them, throughout one day. He presents them with a plethora of scenes: some are from his childhood, others are his family and friends, and still others are his own life experiences. The audience meets a variety of characters, all of whom are immediately relatable and strikingly human.

In one sketch a harridan storms a bank and upbraids the manager for his gout and lack of money. In another, a father takes his son to a house where he will be initiated into the mysteries of life, only to relent at the last moment and leave the boy more perplexed than ever. In another sketch, a crafty seducer goes to work on a wedded woman, only to realize that the woman has been in command from the first overture.

Neil Simon (1927-2018) was a playwright and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 plays and he received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. He was one of the most reliable hitmakers in Broadway history, as well as one of the most performed playwrights in the world.

The play will remain on stage until March 8 at Sahne Abi Center located at No. 1595, Valiasr St., after Taleqani junction.

SS/