TEHRAN – Director Arvand Dashtaray announced on Tuesday that he will stage Florian Zeller’s play “The Father” in September in what is planned to be his first performance since the government has eased curbs on regular activities in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Actor Reza Kainian, who will star as Anthony, leads the cast that includes Leili Rashidi, Saeid Changizian, Sogol Khaliq, Behzad Karimi, Najva Sahebazzamani and Dutch actress Marene van Holk who is Dashtaray’s wife.

The play is a production from the Virgule Film & Performing Arts Company.

Dashtaray, who has earlier worked on several international theater productions such as “Reconsider Your Image of Me” and “Zero” held rehearsals for the acclaimed psychological drama last year, however, his plan to stage it was canceled due to a new wave of COVID-19.

Written in 2012, the play follows Anthony, an aging man who must deal with his worsening dementia. 

In 2020, Zeller directed a screen adaptation of the play starring Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams. It is the second adaptation of the play after the 2015 film “Floride”.

Kianian has previously acted in “The Improvisation”, a play that Dashtaray staged at Tehran’s Nazerzadeh Kermani Hall in October 2019. Van Holk also collaborated in this production as an artistic advisor.

Dashtaray’s latest production “Zero” was live streamed for Dutch theatergoers in March 2021. The play written by Shahab Mehraban was staged at the Koninklijke Schouwburg, a theater in the city center of The Hague.

The play was a co-production between the Virgule Film & Performing Arts Company in Tehran and STET, the English Theatre in The Hague.

Zeller’s plays appeal to Iranian stage directors.

His “The Lie” was performed by a troupe directed by Masud Salehi at the Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater in Tehran in September 2021.

Ali Ahmadi directed his “The Mother” at Tehran’s Iranshahr Theater Complex in June 2019.

Photo: Director Arvand Dashtaray, second right in the rear row, “The Father” cast members pose in an undated photo. 

MMS/YAW