Riksteatern - Iranian Voices
Iranian Voices is a project spanning 4 countries (Sweden, Germany, Turkey and the UK) being led by Riksteatern (Swedish National Theatre) and SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).
Last year a collection of short radio plays were produced by the Riksteatern and broadcast on Swedish National Radio, and the Iranian website Balatarin, reaching 2 million listeners. The plays were created from true stories, in an attempt to make voices from Iran and the Iranian Diaspora audible across the globe, and in this way give strength to the struggle for democracy in Iran.
Haus Projects are producing the UK strand of this project - recording 8 short Iranian radio plays, translated into English, to be broadcast in 2012.
The 8 plays were recorded in London, and directed by Erica Whyman from Northern Stage, and Rosie Kellagher from Live Theatre.
The plays will be available as podcasts here in March 2012. An event exploring some of the issues dealt with in the plays will take place on Sun 19 February at the Arcola Theatre in London, looking at the global issue of human rights, through the lens of Iran, and the power of culture as an arena for political debate and open public discourse.
We will also be running skills sharing workshops around dramaturgy and directing in London on Sat 18 February.
Details for the events and workshops can be found here.
In May 2012 the plays will be broadcast in Newcastle as part of the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts' Belonging festival.
More information will follow soon.