Irish Play ‘Yalta Game’ at Baran Theater

The play ‘The Yalta Game’ directed by Iranian-Armenian actor and director Levon Haftvan is currently on stage at Tehran’s Baran Theater.

Developed from a theme in Anthon Chekhov’s 1899 story ‘The Lady with the Lapdog’, the play was written by the Irish dramatist and short story writer Brian Friel and first produced by Gate Theater, Dublin, in 2001.

The one act play tells the story of an accountant who meets a young lady on holiday. Although they spend a short time together, the naive woman openly professes her love for him and he finds that he too has fallen for her.

This is the second time Haftvan has staged the play in Tehran. Last April and May, he directed it at Konesh-e-Moaser (contemporary action) Theater. “Whenever I find an opportunity to stage this play, I do so,” Honaronline quoted him as saying.

  Performance it in Canada

He is performing it in Canada in spring. Further, he has discussed the staging with two European theater festivals and if approved, “we will stage it in Europe as well. The foreign performances will be in English,” he noted.

Haftvan also plans to work on a play based on a short story titled ‘The Aleph’ written by the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges.

Fluent in Farsi, English, Russian and Armenian he has degrees in directing from University of Tehran and Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts in Moscow.  

He has also appeared in several movies, ‘Dracula’ directed by Reza Attaran (2016), ‘The Man Who Became a Horse’ by Amir Hossein Saghafi (2015), ‘Fat Shaker’ by Mohammad Shirvani (2013) and ‘In the Alleys of Love’ by Khosrow Sinai (1991).

He hopes his latest films ‘Invasion’ directed by Shahram Mokri and ‘Koopal’ by Kazel Mollaei are selected to compete in the 35th Fajr Film Festival in February.

Vahid Rahbani, Roshanak Gerami and Mani Monadizadeh are in the cast of ‘The Yalta Game’ which will be performed until January 19. The theater is located at No. 292, Felestin St., after Enqelab St.