The play ‘Barefoot in the Park’, directed by Hadi Aamel-Hashemi is underway at Entezami Theatre Hall in Tehran.
A romantic comedy by Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter, it premiered on Broadway in 1963 and starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. The play was made into a film in 1967, also starring Redford, and Jane Fonda, Mehr News Agency reports.
The story is about Corie and Paul Bratter, newlyweds. Their first home is an apartment on the top floor of a brownstone building in New York City. During the course of four days, the couple learns to live together while facing the usual daily ups-and-downs. As Corrie wants Paul to become more easy-going, she asks him to run barefoot in the park.
Hashemi hopes to boost hope and confidence among young Iranian couples through the play.
“Unfortunately most separations happen during the early years of married life,” he said, adding that plays like Simon’s comedy are able “to bring love and hope among young couples, and help prevent premature divorce.”
The key aspect in Simon’s style is comedy. He presents serious subjects in a way that makes the audience laugh. He achieves this with rapid-fire jokes and wisecracks, in a wide variety of urban settings and stories.
“Simon’s works receive more attention now in Iran theatre. But due to the complicated concepts in the stories, most of the performances do not impact the audience as they should,” said Hashemi.
Last week, in a creative way of advertising, Mohammadreza Imanian, one of the actors, distributed flyers while walking barefoot all the way from City Theater in Daneshjoo Park to the venue of the play at Iranian Artists’ Forum, a distance of 2.5 km.
This is the second time he is publicizing his performance in an unusual way. In the same play last winter – in another venue in Tehran – he stood barefoot on a cold street, distributing flyers to passersby.
The rest of the cast include Arastoo Khoshrazm, Labkhand Badiee, Fahimeh Tiam-Darvish and Amir Oraee. The play will run through September 11, at Entezami Theater Hall, Iranian Artists’ Forum, Art Garden, North Mousavi St., Taleqani Ave.
