The Play's the Thing

Why should the fact that Iran is the iron grip of loopy religious fiends who want to excise the Jewish "tumour" from the Mideast landscape preclude cultural exchanges between Iran the U.K.? Here's a notice about an, er, interesting production soon to hit boards in Old Blighty:

Iran’s “Human Is Human” to animate stage in Britain

Tehran Times: Mehrdad Rayani-Makhsus will be staging his recent play “Human Is Human”, currently being performed by British actors at the Tehran City Theater Complex, in British cities in the near future.

The play will first go on stage for 20 nights at Liverpool’s Kolectiv Theatre starting mid November, then in late December, the Exchange Theatre of Manchester will host performances for another 20 nights.

Rayani-Makhsus is currently staging the play with three British thespians and one Iranian actress at the Qashqaii Hall of the complex.

The play is written and directed by Rayani-Makhsus who is a PhD research student at the University of Manchester. Three members of the Manchester-based Kolectiv Theatre Company are performing in his play.

Krystyna Musiol, Robin Sidwell and Wayne Jackson and Iranian actress Sepidah Mazaripur are the members of the cast.

The play, inspired by Brecht’s “A Man’s a Man”, is about an animal locked up in a mental institution who eventually transforms into a woman.

Cosponsored by the Center for Dramatic Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the University of Manchester, the play is performing in English with Persian subtitles until October 8.

Thespians--don't they usually get put to death in Iran via public stoning (the mullahs' equivalent of showbiz)? (One of the "Ts" in the LGBTT... rigmarole, no?)