TEHRAN-The play “Anatomy of a Suicide” by the British playwright Alice Birch is on stage at Divar Art Home in Tehran.

Originally written in 2017, the play won the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the oldest and largest playwriting prize honoring women writing for the English-speaking theater.

The play follows three women, Carol, Anna and Bonnie, who, through the course of the play, are revealed to be mother, daughter, and granddaughter. The three women's stories play out simultaneously, while each exists in her own timeline. 

At the start of the play, Carol has just been released from the hospital after trying to commit suicide, Anna is a heroin addict, and Bonnie is a doctor. Carol and Anna are treated with electroconvulsive therapy. Carol commits suicide offstage. Anna electrocutes herself in the bath, while her infant daughter, Bonnie, sleeps in the next room. At the end of the play, Bonnie sells the family home.

Alice Birch, 38, is a British playwright and screenwriter. Birch has written several plays, including “Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again” for which she was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwright.

Birch was also the screenwriter for the film “Lady Macbeth” and has written for such television shows as “Succession,” “Normal People,” and “Dead Ringers”.

“Anatomy of a Suicide” will remain on stage until November 10 at Divar Art Home, located at No. 72, Sepand St., Nejatollahi St.

SS/SAB