The play ‘Flight of Icarus’ written by Hossein Pakdel and directed by Muhammad Hatami was recently on stage at Iranshahr Theater Complex in Tehran.
The screenplay, which took a year to complete, is a loose adaptation of a closet screenplay (a novel presented in the form of a script) by French novelist Raymond Queneau with the same title (Le vol d’Icare), Honaronline reported.
“I was captivated by the story of the original novel. Since I had previously collaborated with Pakdel, I asked him to turn the novel into a screenplay and he agreed,” said Hatami, the renowned actor and director of the play.
The play includes fantastical adventures and parodies, as the original work is among the best literary jokes in modern literature. It tells the story of a writer, Hubert, in the late nineteenth century Paris who is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he’s working on, has vanished.
In this adaptation, four writers who have lost their protagonists find their novels characterless in their absence. The story is a new interpretation of personal ambition that is depicted in story of Icarus.
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of Daedalus who attempts to escape from the island of Crete by means of wings that his father constructed. He ignores his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea.
“The audience is faced with two realities from the beginning of the play; true and virtual, which are integrated through the course of the play. It indicates how each of us can make things happen if we turn fantasies into reality in our minds,” explained the director. The play “gives life to each of our dreams and ambitions on stage.”
Hatami noted that the nature of the play does not call for a specific setting and the stage was designed in a way that things could move easily and promptly. There are no defining limits such as walls as these elements do not exist in modern theater.
The cast includes Koroush Tahami, Amir Kaveh Ahanin-Jan, Sina Razani, Behnoush Bakhtiari, Tino Salehi, and Mohammad Hatami.
A premier for ‘Flight of Icarus’ was held on April 7 and will be on stage every night till May 5 at Nazerzadeh-Kermani Hall, Iranshahr Theater Complex, Art Garden, North Mousavi St., Taleqani Ave.
