TEHRAN -- After seven years, leading stage director Hamid Samandarian will fulfill his desire to perform Bertolt Brecht’s “The Life of Galileo” as his artistic testament.

The play will be staged at Iranshahr’s Samandarian Hall this winter, the executive director of the play Afsaneh Mahian told the Persian service of MNA.
After the ceremony held in his honor in late February 2010, Samandarian insisted on performing the play in the near future, she mentioned.
At that ceremony, Tehran mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf announced that Iranshahr Hall No.2 was named after Samandarian where a full-length statue of the master now stands at its entrance.
“As the executive directors, Kiumars Moradi and I are overseeing the administrative stages of the performance. We are trying our best not to engage Master Samandarian in the official stages so that he can concentrate on directing,” she said.
Tehran Municipality, the Art and Cultural Organization of Tehran Municipality, Iranian Artists Forum and the Center for Dramatic Arts announced their willingness to sponsor the play.
Brecht’s “The Life of Galileo” was staged recently by director Dariush Farhang at the main hall of Tehran’s City Theater. The play was warmly received by audience.
Photo: Iranian stage director Hamid Samandarian made a gesture to the audience after a performance of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s “The Visit” by his troupe at the main hall of Tehran’s City Theater in January 2008. Members of his troupe are seen in the photo. (Photo by Tebyan)