"This is a Political Play": Making Coriolanus Relevant in Contemporary Iran

Abstract

This article traces the performance history of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus in Iran, focusing on the most recent production of the play directed by Mostafa Koushki (b. 1984), performed between 2019 and 2020 in Tehran, Iran, and Kerala, India. Based on an original in-person interview with Koushki conducted by one of the authors in Tehran in July 2020, the article discusses how the production reflected and responded to the country’s volatile political climate. The analysis considers how various elements, including the minimalist set and costumes as well as gender-neutral casting, work together to communicate the production’s criticism of the current state of affairs in the Islamic Republic while staying within the boundaries imposed on theatre performances by the Iranian censorship regime. Ema Vyroubalova´ is assistant professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Her research has focused on multilingual elements in early modern English drama as well as stage and screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s works in a variety of intercultural, multilingual, and comparative contexts. She is associate editor of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare, and her recent publications include articles on Shakespeare in the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Shauna O’Brien is assistant professor in the Department of English Drama, Theatre, and Film at the University of Ło´dz in Poland. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research has focused on adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays in Iran and among the Iranian diaspora. She has also published articles on British documentary and verbatim theatre. Mohammadreza Hassanzadeh Javanian holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of Tehran in Iran. He subsequently held a postdoctoral research fellowship at Freie Universita¨t Berlin. His research interests include early modern English drama, adaptation studies, gender studies, and media studies. His recent publications have concentrated on the role of Shakespeare’s plays in Iran’s social, cultural, and political landscapes.