Lost in Yonkers, a play written by American playwright, screenwriter and author Marvin Neil Simon, 88, is underway at Tehran's Fannizadeh Theater Hall.
The play has won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The performance directed by theater actress and director Sara Darouforoush will run through September 30, Mehr News Agency reported.
The story takes place in Brooklyn in 1942. Evelyn Kurnitz has just died following a lengthy illness.
Her husband, Eddie Kurnitz, needs to take a job as a traveling salesman to pay off the medical bills incurred, and asks his stern and straight talking mother, from whom he is slightly estranged, if his two early-teen sons, Jay and Arty can live with her and their Aunt Bella Kurnitz in Yonkers.
Eddie's mother refuses, but after a threat by Bella, she lets the boys stay. Despite their grandma owning and operating a candy store, Jay and Arty don't like their new living situation as they're afraid of her, and find it difficult to relate to their crazy Aunt Bella, whose slow mental state is manifested by perpetual excitability and a short attention span, which outwardly comes across as a childlike demeanor.
Into their collective lives returns one of Eddie and Bella's other siblings, Louie Kurnitz, a henchman for some gangsters. He is hiding from Hollywood Harry, who wants what Louie stole and is hiding.
Jay and Arty's mission becomes how to make money fast so that they can help their father and move back in together, which may entail stealing the $15,000 their grandma has hidden somewhere. Bella and her fiancé could also use $5,000 of grandma's hidden money to open their dream restaurant. And Louie's mission is to survive the next couple of days.
The two teenagers who play Eddie's sons had a hard time rehearsing, especially with the given mise-en-scene. "It was their first stage performance," Darforoushan said. The rehearsal took 10 months.
"Families will enjoy the play. Lost in Yonkers revolves around family ties and depicts the challenges existing between generations. It has been a while since the script was written, but it remains true in the current social conditions," the director said.
