Pinter’s ‘Homecoming’ on Tehran Stage

A famous play by the Nobel laureate English playwright Harold Pinter, directed by theater directors Ramin Masoumian and Farid Qaderpanah, is on stage at Arghanoun Hall in Tehran. 

‘Homecoming’, the two-act play written by Pinter in 1964 and translated by Fatah Mohammadi into Persian, started its public performances after participating in the 35th Fajr International Theater Festival last month, tiwall.com reported.

The play starts with Teddy, a professor of philosophy, who after having lived in the US for several years, brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family (his father, uncle and two brothers) in North London, where he grew up and which she finds more familiar than their arid academic life in America.

Much tension occurs between the family members, resulting in Ruth’s staying behind with Teddy’s relatives as “one of the family” and Teddy returning to America without her.

In addition to the play being about Teddy’s homecoming on a literal level, critics have suggested that, on a metaphoric level, the homecoming is Ruth’s; that is symbolically Ruth comes “home” to “herself” and rediscovers her previous identity prior to her marriage to Teddy.

Jafar Barqi-Keyvan, Amin Jalali, Ramin Jafari, Mina Zarnani, Hamidreza Keshvardoust, Azadeh Moshashaei and Kaveh Marhamti are in the cast in the Iranian production.

The two directors, Masoumian and Qaderpanah, have previously worked on another work by Pinter ‘A Night Out’ and also collaborated on the play ‘April 1912’ based on a script of their own. 

‘Homecoming’ will be on stage through March 1 at Arghanoun Hall located at No. 1, Ziba Alley, Neauphle-le-Chateau St., Hafez Street.