The Iranian Feast

Description

The Iranian Feast

by Kevin Dyer

• The play explores how people make compromises to survive in societies where freedom is limited.
• Teaches about the reasons behind migration.
• Suitable for schools, colleges and youth theatres to perform.

 

In modern-day Tehran, you can never predict how life will turn out. Part thriller, part cookery lesson, this is the story of a family struggling to deal with the challenges of a regime where secrecy and surveillance are an everyday part of life.

Abbas calls together his wife and daughter and their friends and neighbours for an impromptu feast. Going in the pot are fresh herbs, spices, sweet vegetables and Eli’s mother’s secret ingredient…

 

“Dyer’s script offers some surprises and subtleties, throws up some tricky moral questions and explores how the repressions of the state are mirrored by repressions within the family. Survival always comes at a price.” Lyn Gardner, Guardian

 

About the author

Kevin Dyer won the Writers Guild Award for Best Play for Children and Young People for his play The Monster under the Bed. (It was also shortlisted for the Brian Way and John Whiting Awards.) He was also short-listed for the same award for his play Angel. His adaptation of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Angel were shortlisted for The Brian Way Award. This year he was short-listed for the WG Awards for the Canadian Dora awards and for the Offies with his play Minotaur.

He has received the Writers Guild Encouragement Award for his support of other writers; is an ex-magazine and newspaper journalist, and is a drama assessor for Arts Council England.

He has written over 40 commissioned plays for theatre and radio. His play Baghdad Zoo was commissioned and performed by four major regional theatres as part of the Playground project and has since been produced at Birmingham Rep, ATT, Plymouth Theatre Royal and by companies across the USA.

He wrote The Iranian Feast after visiting Iran just after the stolen election. He would like to thank all those people from and still living in Iran who helped him by reading and discussing drafts of the script.

 

Praise for other works

“A mixture of the bitter and the sweet. A topical thought- provoking piece of entertainment.” Philip Kendall, Spring Bank Arts Centre

“Kevin Dyer writes with not only a lightness of touch but also a vivid theatricality we always feel secure in his presence.” Guardian