TEHRAN-The play “The Jar” written by the Italian author Luigi Pirandello and directed by Majid Zare’zadeh will be performed at Mehrab Theater Hall in Tehran from January 21.

Besides directing, Zare’zadeh also performs in the play along with Mohammad-Ali Mahboubi, Mohammad-Hadi Meshki, Amir-Abbas Saleh, Hossein Jafarpour, Ayda Berenji, Maryam Rezaei, Taraneh Rostami, Amir-Ali Zamannejad, Omid Shiri, Elina Hatami, Mohammad-Reza Hajimohammadi, and Amir-Mehdi Alizadeh.

Originally composed in 1906, the short story “The Jar” was published in 1909 in the Corriere della Sera and included in the eponymous eleventh collection of Short Stories for a Year in the 1927 Bemporad Edition. This short story became the source material for a one-act play of the same title in 1916.

One of Pirandello’s best-known stories, “The Jar” revolves around the tension between Don Lolò Zirafa, a wealthy, ill-tempered landowner, and Zi’ Dima Licasi, the poor inventor of a prodigious glue that is supposed to repair a crack in Zirafa’s expensive oil jar.

The play is set in an olive grove in Sicily, Italy, around 1890. It is harvesting season, and land owner Don Lolò is anxious to put his freshly squeezed olive oil in a new, shiny ceramic oil jar. Don Lolò is surrounded by his employees who mock his attitude and fear his temper in equal measure, and his lawyer who made the mistake of accepting Don Lolò’s invitation to spend the summer in his estate and is now regretting it, as Don Lolò keeps pestering him with legal questions. 

There’s a new, unprecedented case waiting for them around the corner. The oil jar has been broken. The farmers convince Don Lolò to call a jar-fixer, Zi’ Dima, to fix the broken jar. Zi’ Dima is famous for having created a mysterious glue that holds everything together. Don Lolò, however, does not trust that glue to work and orders Zi’ Dima to use both the glue and the traditional rivets. Zi’ Dima does as instructed, but he accidentally remains stuck inside the jar. What will Don Lolò do? Will he break his precious possession to set Zi’ Dima free? Or will the oil jar become a prison for Zi’ Dima?

The plot highlights some of Pirandello’s most iconic narrative tropes, including the themes of hardship triggered by a paradoxical situation, the pathological fixation of a character, and the humorous resolution finally concluding the argument. Zirafa’s obsession with his property recalls Giovanni Verga’s preoccupation with la roba (possessions), which he condemns as an alienating, destructive force that dehumanizes human life. Through the dynamics portrayed in the narrative, Pirandello offers a glimpse into Sicily’s countryside and cultural traditions, as well.

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was a dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays.

He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theater.

Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.

“The Jar” will remain on stage until February 12 at Mehrab Theater Hall located at the junction of Imam Khomeini and Vali-e Asr streets.

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