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From Miranda Eeles
in Tehran
Thursday 23 January 2003
A Dundee theatre company was given a standing ovation last night in Tehran for its production of the Winter's Tale tailored for an Islamic public, the first time for 25 years that a British troupe has performed in Iran.
The 1,600-seat Vahdat Hall in the capital's city centre was packed. How would the Dundee Repertory Theatre render a story based on adultery, jealousy and irrational rage acceptable in the Islamic Republic?
The first- night audience consisted of intellectuals, students and theatre buffs. For them it was Shakespeare's return that was important.
"It was really great to have Shakespeare back in Tehran in this way. The acting, the stage - Everything was so good. I really enjoyed myself," Babak, a drama student, said.
"For us here watching a Shakespeare play is always sign of good fortune to have them here after so many years," Goli Emami, a publisher and translator, said.
Those with little grasp of Shakespearean English were none to impressed with the Farsi translation projected on to a screen above the stage. Technical problems meant that the text often froze or zipped along too fast. "I thought the standard of the performance was very high, but unfortunately the subtitles went kind of haywire," Reza, a university lecturer, said.
A play based on such intense physical feelings presented a challenge to Dominic Hill, the director. In Iran, contact between a man and a woman in public is forbidden. Mr Hill insisted on retaining certain elements and has, so far, got away with it. "The Winter's Tale is a play that kicks off from the moment a man sees his best friend and his wife doing what he calls paddling palms and pinching fingers and that is a moment you need to keep in," he said.
"This is not an Iranian production, and although of course we want to respect their culture and their rules, at the same time, in order to tell the story, certain things happen that will perhaps break those rules. This play is about someone perceived to be breaking rules and is very resonant for where we are."
Some scenes he decided to change. A sensuous party turned into a civilized dinner, and instead of men dancing with women, they danced among themselves. The women had to wear headscarves and cover up.
The authorities had approved the production at a dress rehearsal. The male actors had been "told to cover up their legs", Ann Louise Ross, who plays Paulina, said.
The trip, coinciding with Iran's 21st International Fajr Festival, was organized by the British Council, which hopes that it will be the first of many such exercises. The last time that a British company performed here was in 1977, two years before the Islamic Revolution, when Derek Jacobi starred in Hamlet.
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