Iranian theater show ‘Macbeth’ directed by Reza Servati, has won an award at the 19th International Theater Festival ‘The Rainbow’ held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, May 18-24.
Russia’s Association of Theater Critics announced the Persian play as the best show in the Theater for Children and Youth Category, Mehr News Agency reported.
In the original story, which is a well-known tragedy written between 1955 and 1606 by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare, a brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself.
He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, and soon becomes a tyrannical ruler as he is forced to commit more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness, and finally death.
The award-winning play is a different narration of Shakespeare’s original drama. The special dramaturgy of the Persian version has used most of the original dialogues, although several parts are omitted and scenes changed.
“Some parts of the dialogue are assigned to a different character in our version, giving the audiences a new drama with a different Macbeth from the original,” said Servati.
Morteza Esmaeil-Kashi, Asghar Piran, Behrouz Kazemi, Navab Sorayya and Alireza Khosrow-jerdi were in the troupe.
Servati, 33, has a master’s degree in directing from Tehran’s Tarbiat Modarres University. He is a well-known avant-garde director in Iran. In 2003, he founded the Max Theater Group in Tehran.
He won the Special Jury Award for staging ‘Macbeth’ in the 28th Fajr Festival (2011) and was awarded the Best Playwright and Director in the International Academic Theater Festival for ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Tenacious’. In addition, ‘Macbeth’ won the Best Director Award and the Best Costume and Stage Awards at the 12th International University Theater Festival.
‘The Rainbow’ hosted a number of plays from France, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, the US, Japan, Bulgaria, Britain, Russia and Georgia. The event also covers annual choir, film and animation fests.
