Broadway Hits Iran With Unique Take on 'Les Miserables'

Iranian theatre director Hossein Parsaee calls Victor Hugo's classic a "masterpiece without borders" but his groundbreaking production of "Les Miserables" that has hit the stage in Tehran has a few unique twists.

For a start, none of the actresses are allowed to reveal their own hair, and in case their wigs look too natural, the poster advertising the show carries a bright red notice underscoring that their locks are fake. 

Nor do the actors and actresses touch hands, or have any other physical contact throughout the musical.

This is, after all, the capital of the Islamic republic, even if the blockbuster show in the luxurious Espinas Hotel feels a world away from the usual stereotypes about Iran. 

The concessions to the government's view of Islamic rules are often subtle. 

There is, for instance, always at least one other voice accompanying an actress when she sings—since female solos are taboo—although spotting the second voice can be tricky.

All the other staples of a big-budget musical are here: a live orchestra, billowing dry ice and dazzling light displays.

With a cast, crew and orchestra of over 450, the production has played to sold-out 2,500-strong crowds for six nights a week since it debuted in November. 

’It Was All Perfect'

It was a mainly young, well-heeled crowd when AFP visited recently, and they could barely control their excitement at a rare chance to attend a musical in their home city.

"It was so much more than I expected," gushed Maryam Taheri, a 45-year-old housewife, after the show.  

"The acting, the music, the lighting—it was all perfect."

Foreign-made TV, film and cartoon versions of "Les Miserables"—a French 19th-century epic on sociopolitical tumult, crime and punishment—have been frequently shown in Iran, where the book has also been translated.

The classic work even has the stamp of approval from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has described Victor Hugo's book as "a miracle among novels... a book of kindness, affection and love."

The new production is being hailed as the most spectacular play yet staged in Iran, and arrives at a topical moment with the ongoing "yellow vest" protests in France. 

"After 200 years you see it happening again in France," contends businessman Mehdi Hooshyar.

"This is good, it shows whenever their society stagnates, something like this happens to move it forward," he said.

"The revolution is still alive."

'No Miserables Allowed In'

The lavishness of the production has brought its share of criticism, however.

The play has come at a volatile moment in Iran, when anger at economic inequality and corruption dominates political debate. 

Tickets, priced between IRR 500,000 and IRR 1.85 million (roughly USD 5 to USD 20), are beyond the means of most Iranians. 

“No Miserables allowed in," said a conservative daily, Javan.

Director Parsaee said connecting with Tehran's elite was part of the point. 

"This story is relevant to all times, and all places, and that includes today's Tehran. It's about the class divide, the social breakdown and the poverty that exists today," he told AFP.

"It's a reminder to the audience that other classes exist and we need to see them and know about them. It's a serious warning."

'No Taboos Broken'  

Much of the show seems to run against Iranian taboos, not least the mixed dancing and drinking in brothels and inns. 

But Parsaee, who used to head the performing arts department at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, knows the red lines well. 

“The review board saw the play in its entirety before we were allowed to begin our run," he said.  

"They found it completely compatible with the rules and regulations. No taboos were broken."

The director's love for musicals started around a decade ago when he saw "Oliver Twist", based on the Charles Dickens classic, in London.

"I was depressed for days, thinking why can't we do this? I vowed to myself that I would one day make a musical in Iran."

He did precisely that, bringing "Oliver Twist" to the stage in Tehran last year. 

And now he has established a production company to train a new generation of musical directors. 

"I've opened the door on musicals in Iran, and now, like a relay race, others must advance it to a point that there won't be any difference between Iran and Broadway."

Photo Credit: IRNA

Stolen Ancient Artifact Returns to Iran Museum

A twice-stolen ancient Persian artifact is back in Tehran's national museum after a New York court ordered it returned to Iran.

"It now belongs to the people who made it in the first place, and who are now going to preserve it, and is part of their identity," Firouzeh Sepidnameh, director of the ancient history section of the National Museum told AFP on Tuesday.

The limestone relief was handed over to Iran's representative at the United Nations last month and was personally brought back to Iran by President Hassan Rouhani, returning from the UN General Assembly.

The bas-relief, approximately 25 centuries old, depicts the head of a soldier from a line of Immortal Guards. 

It was discovered in an archaeological dig in the early 1930s at Persepolis, capital of the Achaemenid Empire near today's central Iranian city of Shiraz.

The artifact was stolen four years after it was found, and ultimately ended up at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where it was again stolen in 2011.

It was seized by the Manhattan district attorney's office in 2017 when it resurfaced and was put on sale at an art fair.

"The international community has evolved enough to realize every artifact must return to its point of origin," said Sepidnameh. 

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Iran Film for Oscars Stirs Debate on Home Front

The Iranian film for next year's Oscars has stirred controversy at home both over the choice of a downbeat movie and for taking part in the Hollywood spectacle at a time of tense Tehran-Washington ties.

The Farabi Cinema Foundation tasked with selecting Iran's contestant for the best foreign-language film category has announced its choice of "No Date, No Signature", which won best director and best actor at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.

Vahid Jalilvand's film, which has scooped a host of other awards aboard, tells the tale of two men tormented by guilt over the death of a boy in a road accident, set against a background of social injustice.

"Every year the same debate surfaces over whether or not to submit a film" for the contest in Hollywood, Farabi said last Friday while naming its choice.

The US decision to pull out of the nuclear accord with the Islamic republic and to reimpose sanctions this year has "led certain parties to propose a boycott of the Oscars", it said, referring to Iran's conservative camp.

Defending its participation, the foundation said that members of the Academy which organizes the event were among leading critics of "the populist government of (President Donald) Trump and of its policies tainted with racism and unilateralism.”

The choice of "No Date, No Signature" was vindicated by its success abroad and "the efforts of its distributor" to bring the movie to screens in the United States, Farabi said.

’Golden Opportunity' Missed

But the ultra-conservative press was unimpressed.

"Like the strategy used by Trump in interviews and tweets to depict Iran as a nation abandoned by hope and mired in poverty and misery, 'No Date, No Signature', a most bitter and dark film, has been chosen for the Oscars," Javan newspaper said in a commentary.

It said the foundation had squandered "a golden opportunity" to enlighten the outside world on the values of Iran by nominating another movie, "Damascus Time", on its battle against jihadists in Syria.

Director Ebrahim Hatamikia's film, funded by the Revolutionary Guards, the country's ideological army, has been a hit at the Tehran box office.

After three films were shortlisted from a 110-strong field, "the decisive factor that made 'No Date, No Signature' the best choice was its professional and effective foreign distributor which the others did not have", said Houshang Golmakani, a critic with "Film Magazine", a monthly on Iranian movies he co-founded.

The subject matter makes it "a caustic film" as regards its portrayal of life in Iran, he told AFP. "But art is not a matter of touting for your country.”

In 2017, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won his second Oscar for best foreign movie with "The Salesman", but he boycotted the awards ceremony in Los Angeles in protest at Trump's controversial policies on immigration.

Photo Credit: IMBD

UNESCO Adds 8 Pre-Islamic Iranian Sites to Heritage List

UNESCO on Saturday added eight pre-Islamic Iranian archeological sites to its World Heritage List, the UN agency announced at a meeting in the Bahraini capital. 

The sites collectively appear on the worldwide list as the "Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars region (Islamic Republic of Iran)."

A province in modern-day Iran's south, Fars was the cradle of the Sassanid dynasty, which appeared at the start of the third century.

After the fall of the Parthian empire, the Sassanids ruled territory that, at its peak, stretched from the west of Afghanistan to Egypt, before falling to the Arab conquest under the Umayyad caliphate in the middle of the seventh century. 

"These fortified structures, palaces and city plans date back to the earliest and latest times of the Sassanian Empire," UNESCO said. 

With the latest addition, Iran now has 24 sites on the heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Iranians Welcome Louvre Show Despite Tense Diplomacy

Iranians gave a warm welcome to a new exhibition by France's Louvre on Tuesday—the first major show by a foreign museum in the country.

"It was great. I never thought I'd see such artworks in my life," said Mehdi, a 26-year-old student. The exhibition certainly appeared to go down better than Monday's visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who faced a day of tense discussions with Iranian officials before inaugurating the Louvre show.

The ever-combative Kayhan newspaper summed up the view of Le Drian's visit with the headline: "Impudent guest gets a dressing-down." Le Drian has angered Iran's leaders with his stern criticism of their missile program and foreign interventions.

"It was a tough trip, without concessions," he told reporters on the way back to Paris late Monday. The Louvre show returns the focus to the more positive aspects of France's relations with Iran, which include the rebuilding of trade ties through deals involving companies such as Peugeot, Renault and Total since world powers signed a 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran.

It features a number of treasures from the Paris museum's collection, including a 2,400-year-old Egyptian sphinx, a bust of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and drawings by Rembrandt and Delacroix.

"Very Good" Cooperation

"It was very good, though I was hoping to see more Iranian pieces," said Sorena, a young accountant. "But it was interesting and this sort of international cooperation is very good. Maybe it will lead to more economic relations with other countries."

Only two small pieces from what is now Iran came over from the Louvre collection—an axe dating back more than 3,000 years and an even older mysterious bronze ornament from Lorestan featuring two bulls and a circle of men that became the logo of the Tehran Stock Exchange when it was launched in the 1960s.

"I know there are lots of valuable Iranian pieces in the Louvre, but this is a good start," said Khashayar Tayar, a music teacher in his thirties. "I'm really grateful to the organizers for this show. I hope future exhibitions will have more Iranian pieces to make me even happier."

The exhibition marks the culmination of two years of work since a cultural exchange agreement was signed during a visit by President Hassan Rouhani to Paris in January 2016.

France has deep cultural ties with pre-revolutionary Iran, and the National Museum itself was built by a Frenchman, Andre Godard, in 1938.

"In the tumultuous ocean of international relations, cultural diplomacy is a flare that we should maintain together," Le Drian said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday night.

Photo Credit: IRNA