“When I read this play I found it in perfect harmony with my character,” director/actor Ruzbeh Shafiei told the Persian service of Honaronline on Monday.

“The play is about the people of an intellectual stratum who feel a responsibility toward enlightening the ordinary people, but their basic needs thwart their plans to carry out the social duty,” he added.

The story of the play is set in San Francisco during the 1960s in an apartment where the radical journalists Andy and Norman barely make a living working on their magazine, “Fallout” that fights the system in America. However, everything is affected after Sophie, a former Olympic swimmer and an all-American Southern girl, moves into the apartment next door.

Starring Amir-reza Nazari and Farinaz Nasrin, the play has live music, “which helps the audience gain a real insight into the apartment atmosphere,” Shafiei said.

“The audience was given to laughter during the performance, but the main topic is the pain and reality facing the society,” he noted.

“The Star-Spangled Girl” will be onstage at the theater until August 6.

The play has previously been staged by various Iranian directors such as Bahram Tashakkor and Moineddin Oshaqi.

Photo: Farinaz Nasrin (L) and Ruzbeh Shafiei act in a scene from American playwright Neil Simon’s comedy “The Star-Spangled Girl” at Tehran’s Mehregan Theater House. (Tiwall/Ziaeddin Safavian) 

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