A play based on the well known children story, “The Little Black Fish” by prominent author Samad Behrangi (1939-1967) will go on stage at Paliz Theater in Tehran on August 23 until September 7.
The symbolic play about the journey of a little black fish from a small stream to the sea, has been adapted by US-based Iranian filmmaker and producer Mehrnoush Alia and directed by Mohammad Aqebati a research fellow at the Yale School of Drama that focuses on young audiences, Tiwall reported on its website.
The play was last performed at Triskelion Arts in Muriel Schulman Theater in Brooklyn, New York, in April.
In March 2016, Aqebati successfully staged the play in Manhattan, New York, and at the African-American Arts & Culture Complex in San Francisco.
According to description of the show, the timeless universal story of The Little Black Fish will be performed with music and multimedia to create a unique and immersive theater experience.
The venue is located at No 69, Sepand Street, South Azodi Street, Karimkhan Avenue.
A Political Allegory
The story of little black fish starts in a small stream where the black fish wants to live a life of purpose. It embarks on a journey with the spirit of a dreamer who experiences an awakening. Along the way, it meets different creatures including a helpful lizard and a dreaded pelican. The path leads him to wisdom, courage, awareness and eventually a study of complex social relations. Originally published in 1968, the story of “The Little Black Fish” was widely considered a political allegory, and was banned until the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. The original illustrations of the book by graphic artist and animator Farshid Mesqali received the prestigious Hans Christian Anderson Award in 1974.
Samad Behrangi was a teacher, social critic, folklorist and short story writer. He earned praise for the fish story but the book got him in trouble with the Pahlavi regime (1925-1979) for allegedly promoting anti-state propaganda. Reportedly, he went wading in the Aras river in north Iran and drowned. Some of those acquainted with writer and his works believe his untimely death at the age of 29 under suspicious circumstances was not an accident.
