TEHRAN — Iranian stage director Pari Saberi has recently submited three plays to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to get the ministry’s green light for performance.

“Rainbird” based on a work by Persian blank verse poet Ahmad Shamlu, “Daddy Jollity”, a comedy play and “Garden of Jollity”, on classical Persian poet Sadi, will be performed after she obtains approval from the Culture Ministry.
Any play must be approved by the Culture Ministry for any public performance in Iran.
Saberi, whose previous works were all in melodrama and tragedy genres, plans to try her hand at comedy with “Daddy Jollity”.
“The play demonstrates the strong Iranian sense of humor and also shows the Iranians’ perceptivity,” Saberi said.
“The play is full of action and I think Tehran’s Vahdat Hall provides the appropriate atmosphere for it,” she added.
Most of Saberi’s works are adaptations of masterpieces of Persian classical literature.
Over the past few years, Saberi has staged “Bijan and Manijeh” “Rustam and Sohrab”, “The Mourning of Siavash” and “The Seven Adventures of Rustam” based on Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.
She has also directed “The Flying Shams” based on Rumi’s Masnavi and “Leyli and Majnun” based on the third poem in the pentology of Nezami.
Photo: Members from Iranian director Pari Saberi’s troupe perform in a scene from “Rustam and Esfandiar” at Vahdat Hall in Tehran on December 6, 2010. (Mehr/Abolfazl Salmanzadeh)