Art Bureau to honor stage adaptations of classical Persian literature

TEHRAN.(Iranart) –The Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization (IIDO) has launched a festival that will honor stage adaptations of classical Persian literature.

“The festival has been established to stress the need to return to the values of our classical literature as an effective way to correct the literary defect of the country’s modern theater,” said stage writer and director Ayyub Aqakhani, who is also the director of the Study Office of the Dramatic Arts Center at the Art Bureau.

“We believe that the lack of profound Persian plays, of which our cultural figures have warned, will only be improved by a prudent, methodological and intelligent return to the classical Persian literature, particularly those that are unusually dramatic,” he added.

“Referring back to the classical Persian literary works will help us reinforce the social infrastructures of theater in the country, which is facing a number of cultural emergencies,” he noted.

The event has been named “The Chahar-Rah Stage Adaptations of Classical Persian Literature”. Chahar-rah means crossroads in the Persian language.

“We selected this name because we believe that history, literature, culture and theater will meet each other at the festival on its long road into the future world,” Aqakhani said.  

He staged “Solar Eclipse” about a love story between an Afghan migrant and an Iranian gypsy woman at the Qashqai Hall of Tehran’s City Theater Complex in 2016.

Earlier in 2015, he directed “The Heavy Pieces of Lead” about the life story of the Iranian war hero Mostafa Chamran at the Chaharsu Hall of the complex.

 Source: Tehran Times