TEHRAN-Mehrab Theater in Tehran hosted the first performance of the play “Out at Sea” written by Polish dramatis Slawomir Mrozek on October 27 and will continue staging the play until November 15.

Morvarid Afsari has directed the 50-minute play and also performs in it along with Nima Morshedi and Mahshid Sadri.

The single-set black comedy is an absurdist tale of survival and democratic decision-making. It traces the fortunes of three very different castaways starving on a life raft, who attempt to find a democratic way of deciding which of them shall be eaten by the other two. One is thin, one is medium, and one is fat. The arguments become steadily more outlandish, the bullying and sycophancy more intense, until the intervention of a passing postman and an old manservant take the play into a hilarious surreal overdrive, building to a chilling climax.

“Out at Sea” was written in 1960’s censorship-ridden Poland. Satirist Sławomir Mrozek was forced to find many unusual angles with which to carry his biting comments against the Soviet regime. One of his regular techniques was to write absurd comedic plays that carried a dark message beneath the laughter. Perhaps his finest one-act effort is the little known “Out at Sea”. 

Slawomir Mrozek (1930-2013) was a Polish dramatist, writer and cartoonist. He joined the Polish United Workers' Party during the reign of Stalinism in the People's Republic of Poland and made a living as a political journalist. He began writing plays in the late 1950s. His theatrical works belong to the genre of absurdist fiction, intended to shock the audience with non-realistic elements, political and historical references, distortion, and parody.

Mehrab Theater is located at the junction of Imam Khomeini and Vali-e Asr streets.

SS/SAB