TEHRAN-The play “Voices from Beyond the Dark” written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ariel Dorfman is being performed at Molavi Theater Hall in Tehran.

The Persian performance of the play under the title “Voices Beyond the Dark” has Reza Samadpur, Mehdi Eskandari, Bita Jamali, Mojgan Radfar, Sadaf Asadollahi, Hossein Firouzi, Sara Zoghi, Samaneh Sadeghi, Mobina Kazemi, and Shima Bakhtiari in the cast among others, Honaronline reported.

The 65-minute performance is based on interviews with human rights activists around the world and tells their stories of courage and determination to fight gross human rights violations. 

In the play, eight voices chronicle the stories of 42 human rights advocates from places as diverse as Mexico, Burma, India, and the United States, while two characters representing repressive powers and apathetic onlookers dramatize their opposition. 

The play was first presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in 2000 and has since been performed around the world, both by the best actors of the national and international scene, as well as by college and university students.

Ariel Dorfman, 82, is an Argentine-Chilean-American novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. He has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, since 1985.

His plays and novels engage with the vibrant politically engaged Latin American literary tradition of Pablo Neruda and Gabriel García Márquez.

Dorfman’s 1990 play “Death and the Maiden, perhaps his best-known work, was completed in Chile as he observed his country’s painful transition from authoritarianism to democracy. In 1994 the play was adapted for film by the famous filmmaker Roman Polanski.

Dorfman wrote extensively on issues related to Latin American politics, American cultural hegemony, war, and human rights, publishing essays in both English and Spanish. He also worked with organizations such as Amnesty International, Index on Censorship, and Human Rights Watch.

“Voices from Beyond the Dark” will remain on stage till July 8 at Molavi Theater Hall located at No. 16, 16th Azar St., Enqelab St.

SS/SAB