35th Fadjr Int’l Theater Festival kicks off in Tehran

The Fadjr International Theater Festival has opened its 35th edition at Tehran’s theaters, paying tribute to the victims of the Plasco Building incident.

In a statement published on Friday, the festival organizers offered their condolences on the death of the firefighters after the collapse of Plasco building.

A number of troupes went on stage during the opening ceremony for a moment of silence to pay tribute to the people killed during the commercial building collapsed on Thursday following a huge blaze.

The festival, which will run until January 31, will host performance by twenty troupes from all over the globe in various sections.

The troupes to go on stage at this edition of the event are mostly from Asian and European countries, including Spain, France, Iraq, Turkey, Georgia, Poland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Japan.

The official competition section of the event is to offer performances by 10 foreign and 19 Iranian troupes.

Among the performances are ‘Choir of the Orphans’ by prominent Polish director Jerzy Zon and ‘I, Sisyphus’ by Veselka Kuncheva from Bulgaria.

Mihran Tomasyan from Turkey will take ‘You’re Not a Fish After All’ on stage and Maka Natsvlishvili from Georgia is to present ‘Psychosis’.

Iranian director Arvand Dasht-Aray will take ‘Reconsider Your Image of Me’ on stage with a number of Iranian and Dutch thespians.

The most promising Iranian plays of the event are Nima Dehqan’s ‘Immortality’, Setareh Aminian’s ‘The Tenant’, Masoud Rayegan’s ‘Death Angel’, as well as ‘Cloudy House’ by Siamak Ehsaee and Hamid Pourazari.

Fadjr International Theater Festival is annually held in Iran during the Fajr (also spelled as Fadjr) Decade (literally meaning ten days of dawn) which marks the anniversary of the ten days from the return of Imam Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, to Iran (February 1) until the victory day of the Islamic Revolution (February 11) in 1979.

The festival includes “New Generation of Iranian Theater Practitioners”, “Annual Review of Iranian Theater Performances”, “International Performances”, “Guests”  and “Environmental, Interactive and the Other Kinds of Outdoor Theater Performance”, “+Fadjr”, “Playwriting Competition”, “Contest and Exhibition of Photography of Theater”, and “The Contest and Posters Exhibition and Visual Identity” sections.

The 35th Fadjr International Theater Festival is held from December 30, 2016 to January 31, 2017 in the Iranian capital city of Tehran.

MG/HY