Theatre director and TV actor Amirkaveh Ahanin Jan, plans to stage ‘On the Waterfront’, adapted from a popular movie with the same title, directed by Elia Kazan, at Hafez theatre hall.
It is a 1954 American crime drama film with elements of film noir, about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Kazan, American director, producer, writer and actor, and written by Budd Schulberg.
Ahanin Jan described the humanistic idea of the film as “independent of time” and the reason why he has selected the story to work on, Honaronline reported.
“Creating a unique performance with a different story is the other reason for my decision,” he said.
In the story, Terry Malloy, the main character, dreams about being a prizefighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the Dockers’ Union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny’s thugs, and later meets the dead man’s sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.
The cast includes 30 young talented actors Ahanin Jan said, adding: “I tried to create an opportunity for enthusiastic and amateur actors and give them a platform, in the same manner that my master Hamid Samandarian did.”
The movie received 12 Academy Award nominations, winning eight, including best picture, best actor for Marlon Brando, best supporting actress for Eva Marie Saint, and best director for Kazan. In 1997 it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth-greatest American movie of all time and in AFI’s 2007 list it was ranked 19th. It is Bernstein’s only original film score not adapted from a stage production with songs.
In 1989, ‘On the Waterfront’ was deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry.
The show is slated for autumn.
