“As an aspiring person, I believe this play will resonate with these feelings which I share with others in the troupe. I’m very confident that this performance will turn out to be highly influential,” he told the Persian service of ISNA on Thursday.

The play will be performed on stage by the Piadeh Theater Troupe at Tehran’s City Theater for 45 days beginning February 1.

Founded in 1968 by Farhang and actor Mehdi Hashemi, the Piadeh Theater Troupe was originally composed of students from the Fine Art Faculty of the University of Tehran and included many who went on to be veteran artists, among them Susan Taslimi, Golab Adineh, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, Hamid Jebeli and Marzieh Borumand.

The troupe staged about twenty Iranian and foreign plays. Their last play was Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” by Dariush Farhang, performed 30 years ago.

“The Life of Galileo” manifests the encounter of knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness and the new world and the ancient, which are permanently etched in world history, he mentioned.

“The play was revised by Saeid Shahsavari, who has rewritten it in consideration of today’s life and the expectations of today’s audiences. Personally, I’m in agreement with the revision since I think the original text is too long, out of date and not at all suitable for the tastes of a modern audience,” he mentioned.

He named public enthusiasm as one of the main goals of the art form, which can be ascertained by the public’s participation in audiences in the theater.

“Unfortunately, due to the large number of cast and technical crew, not too many other Iranian cities have the necessary facilities to stage plays,” he lamented.

Veteran Iranian actor Amin Tarokh who stars as Galileo in the play explained his 12-year hiatus on stage to ISNA, “Sometimes artists act in a TV series and films to earn a living but the theater is not just a business.”

He went on to say that he was anxious about playing the role of world-renowned character such as Galileo, since he was not only an academic giant but also a great man who fought hard for his beliefs.

Actor Masud Keramati who is playing the role of Galileo’s intimate friend Sagredo said to ISNA that he liked the role since Sagredo was a man who chose truth and was condemned to death as a result.

Amin Tarokh, Masud Keramati, Rahim Noruzi, Kaveh Khodashenas, Nura Hashemi, Amir Eskandari and Payam Bahari are amongs the cast members.

SB/YAW

END

MNA