TEHRAN-the play “Ghosts” written by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen will be staged at the Shahrzad Theater Complex in Tehran from January 27.

Saeed Karimi has directed the play that has Peyman Mohseni, Maryam Hajizadeh, Hamidreza Farahani, Nesa Yousefi, and Abolfazl Salahshour in the cast, Honaronline reported.

A drama in three acts, the play was published in 1881. it is an attack on conventional morality and on the results of hypocrisy. The plot follows the Alving family as they confront the dark secrets that are embedded in their past and present.

Ostensibly a discussion of congenital venereal disease, “Ghosts” also deals with the power of ingrained moral contamination to undermine the most determined idealism. Although the lecherous Captain Alving is in his grave, his ghost will not be laid to rest. The memorial that Helen, his conventionally-minded widow, has erected to his memory burns down even as his son Oswald goes insane from inherited syphilis and his illegitimate daughter slips inexorably toward her destiny in a brothel.

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a major Norwegian playwright of the late 19th century who introduced to the European stage a new order of moral analysis that was placed against a severely realistic middle-class background and developed with economy of action, penetrating dialogue, and rigorous thought.

As one of the founders of modernism in theater, Ibsen is often referred to as “the father of realism” and the most influential playwright of the 19th century, as well as one of the most influential playwrights in Western literature more generally.

His major works include “A Doll's House,” “An Enemy of the People,” “The Wild Duck,” “Hedda Gabler,” “The Master Builder,” and “When We Dead Awaken”. Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare.

The play will remain on stage for a month at Shahrzad Theater Complex located at No. 74, Neauphle-le-Château St., Hafez St.

SS/SAB