TEHRAN – The play “After Magritte” written by Tom Stoppard is on stage at the Medea Hall of the Tehran Theater Complex.

Soheil Rafiei has directed the play and performs in it along with Pegah Moradi, Maryam Khedmati, Reza Niknam, and Goudarz Hajari, Honaronline reported.

Stoppard’s one-act play is a brilliant theatrical adaptation of René Magritte’s ambiguously dreamlike Surrealist paintings. 

Set in a single room, the narrative follows a family engaged in disparate, nonsensical actions that appear to lack any semblance of rationale: an older woman lying on an ironing board, furniture stacked into massive heaps, and a fiery debate over whether or not a one-legged footballer ran while armed with a tortoise. 

As the story unfolds, these abnormal interactions and occurrences are further intensified with the arrival of an irate police inspector who interrogates the relatives about an elusive criminal, the Crippled Minstrel Caper. 

Magritte is known for his depictions of ordinary objects arranged in illogical, bizarre compositions that defy reasonable explanation. Magritte transformed our understanding of language through his placement of objects that infused them with new meanings. 

Stoppard applies Magritte’s manipulation of signs, symbols, and language to his play in which the characters, setting, and props function not according to their original purposes, but are instead utilized for unknown intentions. 

The play deals with the questions of defining reality, mysteries of perception, the slippery elusiveness of empirical and logical truth, the nature of point of view, the reliability of witnesses and testimony, and the conflict between appearance and reality.

Sir Tom Stoppard, 88, is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. 

His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical bases of society. 

Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theater and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation.

“After Magritte” will remain on stage through November 28 at the Tehran Theater Complex, located at No. 3, Farhangi Alley, Vesal Shirazi St., Enghelab Ave.

SS/SAB