TEHRAN-The play “The Hairy Ape” written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill and directed by Ali Sirousian is on stage at the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran.

The 70-minute play will be staged through December 11 (except for Saturdays) at the Entezami Hall of the IAF, ILNA reported.

A 1922 expressionist play, it is about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. The play follows Yank on his journey of realization that the capitalist society all around him has left him and his physical strength behind as the upper class has claimed superiority over Yank and the other coal feeders that work aboard an ocean liner. In a fight for social belonging, Yank's mental state disintegrates into animalistic, and in the end, he is defeated by an ape in which Yank's character has been reflected. 

In “The Hairy Ape,” O'Neill is tempting the audience to look at the Industrial Revolution as a regression in human development, the forwarding of a class system in society, and man's inability to feel like he belongs in any class other than his own.

Ofoq Iraji, Shahin Khalili, AmirAli Rad, Kiarash Radmehr, Bita Sepehrpour, and Sormeh Salamizadeh are in the cast among others. 

The Iranian Artists Forum in located at Artists Park on North Mousavi Street, Taleqani Street.

SS/SAB