I Found “Phobia” in My Father’s Library

The director of “Phobia” told irantheater.ir that her father studied in the Fine Arts Faculty many years ago and had a classmate named Shakour Ghafouriasl who had written the play, titled originally “Inhale & Exhale”.

“It has a strong subject but not-so-much-strong literature. That made me to do dramaturgy given that the finishing pages were lost,” Ms Khosrowmehr said and added that the poster of play had referred that the text was an adaptation while members of the group liked the play.

Ms Khosrowmehr, who heads the White Tulip Group, said that the group had once per week rehearsal over the past year to get ready for the performance.

She added that no news on Mr Ghafouriasl was available and her efforts to find him went nowhere.

“I just know that the play took part in the Sacred Defense Festival in 2003 and I had informed the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of all the related info on the hope to find the writer,” explained Ms Khosrowmehr.

“One of the reviewer of the play, who was about 60s, told me that he had rehearsed the play 40 years ago with a group but they failed to perform it,” she added. “The play is an adaptation of a foreign text about the World War II.”

Ms Khosrowmehr, who had previously directed “Irish Cappuccino” by Ayoub Aghakhani and “Wet Eyes of Ismail” by Payman Daneshmand, said that this was an anti-war play about a child whose mother frightened him of thunder. As he grows up, every sound would bother him including the news, scream and now the war. These sounds turn into a major challenge for him and that’s why the play was called “Phobia”.

She added that the group would perform the play for one week in Qom after Tehran following talks with her colleagues in the central city.

The play has started performance since yesterday. The 55-minute play will be staged up to August 9 at 7 pm every day in Mashayekhi theater hall.

Jalal Tabrizi and Farshid Abolhassani play in the drama. Mousa and Soroush Soukhtesaraei are the stage designer and effect planners, respectively, lighting designer is Abbas Ghafari, make-up artist and costume designer Afsaneh Gholizadeh, Reza Ahmadi the assistant director, Korosh Barzi the photographer, Niloofar Razmand the public relations and Mehdi Soleimani the media and advertisement advisor.