TEHRAN-The play “The Undead Burial” written by Jean-Paul Sartre is being performed on stage at Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater in Tehran.

Also known as “The Dead without Burial,” the play is directed by Amir Kamali and has Fatemeh Amouzegar, Meysam Goudarzi, Matin Khanjari, Nima Farahbakhsh, Hesam Javaheri, Amir Hamoun, Alireza Nikkhah, and Zahra Shahbazi in the cast, ILNA reported.

Originally written in 1946, the play recounts the adventure of a group of young prisoners of resistance in occupied Paris. The effect of war on the human spirit of the people is the main theme of this play. Towards the end of the war, a group of partisans attacked a village and, after much deliberation, were captured by a unit of the French army. One of the prisoners escapes and all the men and women in the group are tortured to provide information about him to the army.

Long and tumultuous dialogues realize the fears of young activists against the imminent interrogation with torture from which there is no escape. The prisoners debate about the reasons to get involved with the liberation movement and patriotic reasons to support all horror. The talks, however, reveal people shrouded in fear, doubt, and all sorts of ambiguities and paradoxes. The sense of membership in the movement is vague and diffuse, punctuated by personal differences between members of the group itself. Even before the interrogation, they are all dead unburied.

A challenging play about the fears and sufferings of war, Sartre’s conventional philosophical notions of free will and power of choice can be seen in the work, but it seems to have more emotion than some of his other works.

Novelist, playwright, and biographer Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. He was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The play will remain on stage through April 29 at the Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater located at No. 18, Neauphle-le-Chateau St., junction of Razi St.

SS/SAB