TEHRAN – French writer Florian Zeller’s play “The Height of the Storm” is on stage for the first time in an Iranian theater in Tehran.

Starring Nader Fallah, Sanaz Roshani, Marzieh Musavi, Shima Jafarzadeh, Sepehr Mahmudi and Ramona Shah, the play follows a couple looking back at 50 years of marriage, and realizing their relationship may not be as perfect as they expected, however, they refuse to be separated, even after one of them dies.

Director Masud Salehi’s troupe began their performances on October 30 at Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater.

“Since the story of the play is set in the atmosphere of the mind, it was a wonderful choice for me and posed a great challenge to me,” Salehi told the Persian service of Honaronline on Tuesday.

“‘The Height of the Storm’ is very close to what occurs in Zeller's ‘The Father’ as its story is set in an atmosphere in between dreams and reality. So to reach a proper analysis, I followed the patterns initiated by Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud,” he added

“Dialogues are realistic and we have done our best to design powerful scenes and mise-en-scène to influence the audience,” he noted.

Salehi’s troupe conducted rehearsals for four months to stage the play.

“Due to the complicated dialogues in the play, Sorush Javadzadeh, translator of the drama, joined the troupe during the rehearsals; accordingly, we are fully committed to the text,” he noted.

Salehi disagrees with some Iranian troupes’ decision to cancel their performances due to the unrest occurring in the country.

“Nowadays, conditions for staging a play are unfavorable. Some stage artists criticize their colleagues in other groups for working under these conditions. I don’t know where this mistake comes from. Theater is our job, our life; it is not just for happy days,” he lamented.

However, he added, “The play's production cost much more and it would be of great benefit to our group to perform it under favorable conditions, but the troupe was determined not to shut down the performance. I wanted to stage the play under good conditions so that many people could see it and critics would comment about it.”

Salehi has previously directed Zeller's “The Lie” and Didier Van Cauwelaert’s “The Astronomer” in Tehran. 

Photo: Ramona Shah acts in a scene from “The Height of the Storm” at Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater, Tehran, November 6, 2022. (Honaronline/Milad Beheshti)

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