Play about repercussions of war on stage in Tehran

TEHRAN,Sept.6(MNA) -- A Tehran theater is currently hosting a play, which its director says is a warning against the repercussions of war. Veteran director/actor Qotbeddin Sadeqi has begun staging “I Would Not Have Any Memory Even If I Was a Thousand Years Old” based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s “The Trojan Women” at Hafez Theater since August 12. “I staged the play to show that everybody loses and dies in wars and human misery is the result of the acquisitiveness of those who wage wars for wealth and women,” Sadeqi told . He said that children and women are the main losers of wars. “In this play, I want to highlight the role of the main losers, because in wars, men are busy showing off their braveness, for which they are admired, but women -- the main losers -- are always ignored,” he added. A cast of young artists, most of whom are Sadeqi’s pupils, has been hired for the play. “My definition of ‘theater’ is cultural activity and I also take this definition into consideration when I work with the youth… I educate through theater. My aim is neither to make money nor to do something the officials welcome, but I want to keep the light of theater on in Iran,” he stated. He donated all box office receipts from August 16 performance to the victims of the quakes, which hit villages in East Azarbaijan Province on August 11. Sadeqi, 57, got a Ph.D. in drama from Sorbonne University in Paris. He has staged many plays mostly focusing on Iranian history and traditions. He has previously staged “Medea”, “Mobarak the Little Guard”, “The Age of Innocence”, “Cain”, “The Just Assassins”, “The Seven Adventures of Rustam”, “The Memoirs of Zarir”, “The Garden of Shekarpareh” and several other plays. He has also acted in several movies and TV series including “A Report on a Murder” and “The British Bag”.