Othello in Wonderland and Mirror-Polishing
Storytellers
Two Plays By Gholamhoseyn Sa`edi
Edited, With An Introduction And Notes, By M. R. Ghanoonparvar
Translated From The Persian By Michael Phillips; Critical Essay By Kaveh Safa
Othello in Wonderland and The Mirror-Polishing Storytellers are
two post-revolutionary Persian plays by Gholamhoseyn Sa`edi, the prominent fiction writer
and best-known Iranian playwright of this century. In these plays, Sa`edi deals with the
most vital issues facing the people of his country after the establishment of the Islamic
government in Iran. Written in exile in Paris, these plays display a boldness and fearless
disregard for censorship. In Othello in Wonderland, which is a fictional case study of
censorship, a theatrical troupe tries to stage the Shakespearean play, Othello, with
tragic, albeit humorous, consequences as a result of the clashes of views and ideologies
of the officials and supporters of the Islamic regime and the secular intelligentsia in
Iran. The Mirror-Polishing Storytellers, on the other hand, is an explicitly anti-war play
in which Sa`edi presents gruesome pictures of war and its effects on individuals and
families. The two plays represent Sa`edi at his best in combining a sense of grim humor
with psychological insight into human nature and display his talent as a creative and
innovative artist..
Specifications:
1996:xiii+144pp., glossary, bibl.
Bibliotheca Iranica:Performing Arts Series, No. 2
ISBN:1-56859-046-6(paper): $13.95Now $5.00
Othello in Wonderland and The Mirror-Polishing Storytellers are
two post-revolutionary Persian plays by Gholamhoseyn Sa`edi, the prominent fiction writer
and best-known Iranian playwright of this century. In these plays, Sa`edi deals with the
most vital issues facing the people of his country after the establishment of the Islamic
government in Iran. Written in exile in Paris, these plays display a boldness and fearless
disregard for censorship. In Othello in Wonderland, which is a fictional case study of
censorship, a theatrical troupe tries to stage the Shakespearean play, Othello, with
tragic, albeit humorous, consequences as a result of the clashes of views and ideologies
of the officials and supporters of the Islamic regime and the secular intelligentsia in
Iran. The Mirror-Polishing Storytellers, on the other hand, is an explicitly anti-war play
in which Sa`edi presents gruesome pictures of war and its effects on individuals and
families. The two plays represent Sa`edi at his best in combining a sense of grim humor
with psychological insight into human nature and display his talent as a creative and
innovative artist..
