TEHRAN – “Behanding in Spokane”, a 2010 black comedy by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh is on stage at Tehran’s Da Theater.

Hamed Khosravi is the director of the play, which will be on stage until July 18.

Siamak Adib, Mehdi Shahi and Sahar Baqerabadi are the main members of the cast for the play. 

Set in Spokane, Washington, this is McDonagh’s first play that takes place in the United States. Toby has a hand that he’d like to sell Carmichael for the right price. Marilyn wishes that Toby had never stolen that hand from the museum.

Mervyn thinks Marilyn is pretty hot. He works reception, though he wouldn’t call himself a receptionist. Life and death are up for grabs, and fate is governed by imbeciles and madmen.

“Behanding in Spokane” turns over American daily existence, exposing the obsessions, prejudices, madness, horrors, and, above all, absurdities that crawl beneath it.

The play premiered at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway in 2010.

Iranian director Rojin Karimlu directed “Behanding in Spokane” at Tehran’s Divare Chaharom in March 2021.

In January 2020, Ahmad Bistuni directed the play at Tehran’s Mehregan Theater.

Earlier in 2016, Siavash Bahadori-rad staged the play at Tehran’s Arghanun Theater.

McDonagh’s play “The Pillowman” has also been performed by Iranian theater troupes over the past few years.

Mohammad Yaqubi and Aida Keikhai co-directed the play at the 2nd International Festival of Martin McDonagh in Perm, Russia in 2016.

“The Pillowman” tells the story of a writer who is interrogated about her short stories and their similarities to a number of child murders occurring in his town.

Ali Sarabi restaged  "The Pillowman” at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall during April 2020. He directed the play at Tehran’s Shahrzad Theater in summer 2019.

Photo: A poster of Martin McDonagh’s black comedy “Behanding in Spokane” at Tehran’s Da Theater.

ABU/