Mystic Lear and Playful Hamlet: The Critical Cultural Dramaturgy in the Iranian Appropriations of Shakespearean Tragedies

Abstract

This article examines the process of "critical cultural dramaturgy" in the course of the textual domestication of two Shakespeare's plays (King Lear and Hamlet) by the Iranian theatrical group Bāzi. Mohammad Charmshir (as the playwright) and Atilā Pesyāni (as the playwright and director) have created a cultural dramaturgical kaleidoscope in which several intertexts converge during a less signaled interaction with the source text. This convergence generates a robust relationship with Iranian modes of performance that are inspired by Persian hekmats (wisdoms). In their experimentation with form and content, the plays' dramaturgs/adapters form a relevant dialogue with a "privileged interlocutor" (Litvin), which consists of the aesthetics and thematics of their own dramatic traditions and ritual practices, and season it with a critical look at their sociocultural values. The process of "critical cultural dramaturgy" thus not only Iranianizes temporal proximation and special relocation of characters, plot, and settings, but also involves borrowing conventions from ta'ziyeh plays (Iranian commemorative drama), naghāli (epic storytelling), and rū-howzi (comic improvisatory drama). The result is changing Lear to a mystic traveler and Hamlet to a laughing prince.