A play ‘The State of Plague’ by theater artist Tino Salehi has been planned for autumn at Tehran’s Iranshahr Theater Hall.
An adaptation from a 1948 play titled ‘The State of Siege’, by French-Algerian philosopher, author, and journalist Albert Camus (1913-1960), the play is in three acts presenting the arrival of plague, personified by a young opportunist, in Cadiz (city and port in southwestern Spain) and the subsequent creation of a totalitarian regime through the manipulation of fear.
“I made changes to the script, but have kept the entire plot,” said Salehi, adding that the adapted version has less dialogue and “is more strongly focused on the acts and motions,” Mehr News agency reported.
In addition to the play, Salehi is also studying another of Camus work ‘The Plague’ (1947), a novel which narrates the same story, “in order to present a complete perspective of the events.”
“The idea came about when I was working on the biomechanical acting technique of Vsevolod Meyerhold (contemporary Russian theater director, actor and producer) with my students. I decided to work on the play based on the mechanical technique, highlighting the motions in performance,” he said.
He trained his students for several months and finally chose the 14 best among them, who perfectly understood physical movements, solfege (music pitch) and rhythm. The dates of the staging will be announced later.
