Harsh Truth vs. Comforting Lie

The play “The Lower Depth,” one of the famous works of Russian writer Maxim Gorky is to be staged at Niavaran Cultural Center in Tehran from August 12.

Written in 1902, the play is a portrait of a destitute, lower-class group in a lodge near the Volga River in Russia.

The theme of “harsh truth versus the comforting lie” pervades the play from the beginning to the end, as most characters choose to indulge in self-deception regarding the bleak reality of their lives.

The performance is directed by Alireza Kamyarnia and the cast includes Shahab Bahrami, Hamed Badihi, Nasim Jafari, Ali Heydari, Neda Riahi and Shahrdad Qadiri, Mehr News Agency reported.

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was the founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. He was a five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Fifteen years before success as a writer, he frequently changed jobs and roamed across the Russian Empire. This experience later influenced his writings.

Twenty-six Men and a Girl, The Song of the Stormy Petrel, My Childhood, Mother and   Children of the Sun are some of Gorky’s well-known works.

Niavaran Cultural Center is located near Niavaran Park on Pasdaran Street.