TEHRAN – After two successful rounds of performances in winter and spring, the play “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” written by Brian Clark is back on stage in Tehran.

Homa Hall is hosting the 80-minute play every night. Directed by Dorsa Aghaei, the play has a mix of actors from the previous performances and new ones in the cast, ISNA reported.

Shahin Zare’, Niloufar Abbasi, Negin Khosrow, Shakiba Elkaie, Yukabed Mousavi, Saman Tohidi, Ali Golshani, Helia Soleimani, Kasra Hedayatnia, Alireza Ehsani, Shayan Heydari, Mohammad Mehrafrouz, and Narges Parsianmehr are in the cast.

Set in a hospital room, the action revolves around Ken Harrison, a sculptor by profession, who was paralyzed from the neck down (quadriplegia) in a car accident, and only his brain functions normally. He is being kept alive by the miracles of medicine, but wishes to die.

Clark presents arguments both in favor of and opposing euthanasia and to what extent the government should be allowed to interfere in the life of a private citizen. In portraying Ken as an intelligent man with a useless body, he leaves the audience with conflicting feelings about his desire to end his life.

As he fights for his right to die rather than live in an incapacitated state, the play examines the moral and legal aspects of the situation and the reactions of the hospital staff.

Brian Clark (1932-2021) was a British playwright and screenwriter. He taught in schools, colleges, and universities and was a member of the Drama Department at the University of Hull from 1968 to 1972.

He is best known as the author of the multi-award-winning play “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”, which was first produced in 1978.

In the 1970s, it took Clark six years to find a West-End theater management brave enough to risk presenting a play in which the central character is a tetraplegic faced with a future of total dependence on a life-support machine. But it was a smash hit both there and on Broadway, winning several awards, and a film version followed. The dilemma posed by a medical professional committed to saving life on the one hand and an individual claiming the right to make their own decisions about their life on the other is one that has struck a chord deep in the public imagination and is as real today as it was then.

“Whose Life Is It Anyway?” will remain on stage through July 18 at Homa Hall, located at Ziba Dead-End, Nofel Loshato St., Hafez St.

SS/SAB