TEHRAN -- Iranian director Hossein Mosafer Astaneh will stage his play, “Love Resurrection”, in the Eighth International Black Sea Countries’ Theater Festival, which will be held in the Turkish Black Sea port of Trabzon from May 2 to 15.

“The secretary of the festival saw the play during the 25th Fajr International Theater Festival (held in Tehran in January 2007) and invited our troupe to perform in the Turkish festival,” Mosafer Astaneh told the Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

The play, which depicts the life of Molana Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273), was part of UNESCO’s celebration of the 800th birth anniversary of this Persian poet and mystic.

Written by Mohammad Rahmanian, “Love Resurrection” is a musical spiced with sama’ (the Sufi ecstatic dance and ritual).

Mosafer Astaneh has previously staged the play in the UNESCO headquarters, Paris, in October 2006, and it was warmly welcomed by Parisian theatergoers.

The play was choreographed by the leading actors, Nader Rajabpur, Saeid Dakh, and Asghar Faridi Masuleh.

Behzad Javedanfar, Mohsen Torabi-Gudarzi, Ali Barati, Ali-Akbar Mosafer, Bahador Fazel, Reza Rad, Neli Reihani, Zohreh Aqalu, Elnaz Tarikhi, Ramak Far-Khojasteh, Ghazaleh Soheili, Neda Sayyas, and Lida Fat’hollahi are also in the cast.

The music for the play was composed by Saeid Zehni.

The Trabzon festival will also play host to Mah-Su, another Iranian theater troupe which is scheduled to perform “The Well”.