TEHRAN-The play “If You Died” written by Florian Zeller is being performed on stage in Sari, the capital of Mazandaran Province.

Directed by Mojtaba Baheshmat, the play is staged at the Black Box Hall of the provincial General Directorate of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

The director also performs in the one-hour play along with Hanieh Taghinejad, Hamed Karimi, and Mitra Rouhi.

One of the first plays of Zeller, it has a mysterious storyline following someone who is slowly losing track of what is real and what is not. For the audience, this play is a puzzle, an investigation, a riddle.

Recently widowed, Anne finds in the desk of Pierre – her deceased husband – a play he was writing. These texts haunt her and make her doubt: what if Pierre had fallen in love with this Laura girl? What if he had been planning to leave her right before the accident killed him? With the help of Daniel, Pierre’s best friend, Anne starts to investigate in order to find answers and meanings death had seemingly taken away.

Zeller, 45, is a French novelist, playwright, theater director, screenwriter, and film director. He has written over a dozen plays, that have been staged worldwide and have made him one of the most celebrated contemporary playwrights.

His work has been translated into a dozen languages, including English and Persian. He won the Prix Interallié in 2004 for his novel “Fascination of Evil”.

His black comedy “The Father” is one of the outstanding hits of recent years, playing in London's West End to ecstatic five-star reviews and winning several awards and nominations in Paris, London, and New York. Zeller wrote and directed his first film, 2020's “The Father,” based on his play, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. The film received more than 200 nominations and awards, all over the world, and won two Oscars at the 93rd Academy Awards. Since then, it has been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century.

In his plays, Zeller tackles the theme of lies and truth. He often tries to resolve the eternal dilemma within one’s family circle that is believed to be most open and receptive in embracing the truth. However, it often transpires that one’s family tends to be subjected to lies and deception. In today’s world, people are inundated by fake news spread deliberately by social networks, allowing individuals to achieve political goals and gain social influence. The truth is becoming increasingly relative, not only in the metaphysical, Rashomon-like sense, but objectively too: facts are being falsified, and lies are being circulated.

SS/SAB