Hungary to stage Iran’s ‘The Divine Comedy: Purgatory’

Iranian play ‘The Divine Comedy: Purgatory’ has been set to go on stage in Hungary.

Written and directed by Iranian theater director Ebrahim Poshtkouhi, ‘The Divine Comedy: Purgatory’ will be performed by a composition of Iranian and foreign cast.

The play coproduced by Amir Seyyed-Ahmadi and the EU will be staged in Hungary on March 23-24, 2019.

It is a loose adaptation of Purgatory, the second part of Italian poet Dante's Divine Comedy.

Purgatory in the poem is depicted as a mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, consisting of a bottom section, seven levels of suffering and spiritual growth, and finally the Earthly Paradise at the top.

Allegorically, the Purgatory represents a repentant life. In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in a holy place.

The poem outlines a theory that all sins arise from love – either perverted love directed towards others’ harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.

In June 2018, Poshtkouhi’s ‘Divine Comedy, Inferno’ went on stage at Azerbaijan State Musical Theater as part of Iran Cultural Days program held in Baku.

MG/AG