Pulitzer Prize winning play “'night, Mother” on stage at Tehran theater

TEHRAN.(Iranart) – American playwright Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “'night, Mother” is on stage at a Tehran Theater based on a Persian translation by Hamid Ehya.

Melika Razi and Peyman Yaquti co-direct the play starring Leila Mirzai and Azam Erfani.

Speaking to the Persian service of Honaronline on Tuesday, Razi who has previously directed Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” and “The Operetta of Orang’s Deceit” by Seyyed Hashem Khan Shafe, said, “In all the plays I have ever staged, I have always regarded women and their issues and feelings that are ignored.”

The play, which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is about a daughter, Jessie, and her mother, Thelma. It begins with Jessie calmly telling her mama that by morning she will be dead, as she plans to commit suicide that very evening.

“The kind dialogue between the mother and her daughter pushed me to stage the play telling the story of a woman who is suffering from mental problems due to her boring life,” Razi mentioned.

“The mother has great empathy with her daughter and this gives a psychological atmosphere to the performance,” she added.  

Her troupe has spent over three months rehearsing to perform the play, which will be on stage until February 8.

“'night, Mother” appeals to Iranian stage directors. Ehsan Foka, Mahshid Babai and Saeid Zakizadeh have previously directed the play in Tehran.

A group directed by Mohammadreza Samifar also performed a reading of the original play in English at Tehran’s Mostatil Theater from January 9 to 12. 

Source:Tehran Times