TEHRAN -- “Herakles 5” written by the German dramatist Heiner Müller is scheduled to go on stage at the Iranshahr Theater Complex in January 2014.
The play will be directed by Nasser Hosseini-Mehr, who performed Müller’s “Hamletmachine” in Tehran three years ago.
Müller wrote the play in 1966 based on “Herakles” written by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides (C. 480-406 BC).
“Herakles” is an Athenian tragedy that was first performed c. 416 BC. While Herakles is in the underworld obtaining the three-headed dog Cerberus for one of his labors, his father Amphitryon, wife Megara, and children are sentenced to death in Thebes by Lycus.
Herakles arrives in time to save them, though the goddesses Iris and Madness (personified) cause him to kill his wife and children in a frenzy.
Müller (1929–1995) was a German dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theater director. Described as “the theatre’s greatest living poet” since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht.
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