TEHRAN-Tehran Theater Complex is hosting the 1929 play “Rope” written by Patrick Hamilton in its Medea Hall.

Seyyed Amirali Mirzad has directed the play that has Behnam Amoukhalili, Ali Abdolrahimzadeh, Mohammadali Aghaei, Sajjad Jafari, Fatemeh Shoghi, Shakiba Motazedi, and Ardalan Razmi in the cast, Honaronline reported.

The play was said to be inspired by the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

The play is set on the first floor of a house in Mayfair, London, in 1929. The story concerns two young university students, Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo, who do something horrible to express their supposed intellectual superiority.

For the mere sake of adventure, danger, and the fun of the thing, Wyndham Brandon persuades his weak-minded friend, Charles Granillo, to assist him in the murder of a fellow undergraduate, a perfectly harmless man named Ronald Raglan. They place the body in a wooden chest, and to add spice to their handiwork, invite a few acquaintances, including the dead youth's father, to a party, the chest with its gruesome contents serving as a supper table. 

Suspicion arises among the guests as to the content of the chest. After the party, one guest, a former professor of the murderers named Rupert Cadell, returns and contrives to open the chest. He is shocked and ashamed that they have acted in response to his own declarations of amorality. The play ends with this quandary unresolved.

In 1948, Alfred Hitchcock made a film of the same name based on the play, though with some changes. The setting is relocated to 1940s New York City, and the names of all of the characters, with the exception of Rupert Cadell, are altered. In the film, Cadell is played by James Stewart. Hitchcock's is the only feature film version of the play to date.

In 1983, Rope was dramatized as a BBC Radio 4 Drama for Saturday Night Theater, starring Alan Rickman as Cadell.

Patrick Hamilton (1904-1962) was an English playwright and novelist. He was well regarded by Graham Greene and J. B. Priestley, and study of his novels has been revived because of their distinctive style, deploying a Dickensian narrative voice to convey aspects of inter-war London Street culture. They display a strong sympathy for the poor, as well as an acerbic black humor. 

“Rope” will remain on stage through May 23 at the Tehran Theater Complex located at No. 3, Farhangi Alley, Vesal Shirazi St., Enghelab Ave.

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