An Interview with Alireza Koushk-Jalali
'Waiting for Adolf' to Start on February 1 Again
Iran Theater: 'Waiting for Adolf' is one of the best performance of this Iranian year so far. It is directed by veteran theater director Alireza Koushk-Jalali. It sets a sale record of Iranshahr Theater Complex in the current Iranian year (started on March 21).
Alireza Koushk-Jalali should be regarded an international theater artist rather than an Iranian one. He has been writing plays in German language. He has performed more than 45 shows in Germany and has four published plays in German language. He has a group in Cologne called 'Ali Jalali Ensemble'.
His play 'Barefoot, Naked, a Heart in Fist' received award in Germany. It has had more than 650 performances in Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Russia, the US, Iran and Turkey. It received an honorary prize in Cologne in 2016.
Koushk-Jalali have staged 'M. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran', 'The God of Carnage', 'The Gronholm Method' and 'Postman: Pablo Neroda' in Iran in the past.
Koushk-Jalali has staged 'Waiting for Adolf' in Iranshahr Theater Complex. It was warmly welcomed and is going to be staged again since February 1.
The play 'Waiting for Adolf' – and adaptation of 'What's in a Name?' by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte –is translated and directed by Koushk-Jalali.
The following is excerpts of an interview with Koushk-Jalali by Iran Theater.
'Waiting for Adolf' received a rare welcome by audience of different classes. What's the reason despite that the play had a sort of nihilism content.
The play is originally titled 'What's in a Name?' I have chosen the title of 'Waiting for Adolf' to remind the audience of the classic absurd play 'Waiting for Godot'. The play has a bitter, biting and cynical approach towards relations of intellectuals in all societies.
The main reason it could attract audience of different classes was that it could connect with them. It has a modern style in writing, performance and acting. The significant point in the play was that it has looked into social relations and sophisticated relationships of humans simply. It has a simple story of psychological matters.
One of the complaints of directors of translation of foreign plays is that translators did not take the thoughts of playwrights into account. One of the strong point of this performance is that you have been both the translator and dramaturge of the piece. I want to know what the result is.
It has helped to direct the play with a thorough assessment. As a dramaturge of the show, I tried to deepen the play by cutting or adding some dialogues while considering the taste of spectators and being loyal to the original text.
When are you going to start the play again?
From February 1.