The play had previously been approved by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which controls art and media in Iran. But Public Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi told reporters, “This play had some problems both conceptually and in the way it was performed.”
The content of the original 1890 script of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” had been altered prior to its Tehran premiere January 5 to meet Iranian standards. Some of the changes included erasure of a main character’s alcoholism and assurance of physical distance between female and male characters onstage. Even so, many in the media still found the production risqué.
Fars news agency described it as “nihilistic and hedonistic,” adding it “was performed in a very vulgar and inappropriate way for the public.” Some critics say the Fars piece made the play appear more vulgar than it was, digitally modifying pictures to show actors of the opposite sex closer to each other than they really were, looking as though they were about to kiss.
Nevertheless, government agents either agreed with the Fars analysis or buckled under media pressure. In an oddly-worded statement, the Ministry of Culture said, “Considering the furor created by some media representatives and cultural officials, and in order to prevent disturbing public opinion and due to concerns of the authorities, the performance of ‘Hedda Gabler’ has been stopped for now.”
Prosecutor Dolatabadi also announced that a new department would be formed his office focused on “culture and media.” “We should make society’s cultural atmosphere healthy. We will confront any activities that endanger the cultural security of society,” he said.
The Culture Ministry already has licensing authority over plays, films, books, et cetera. So, some saw this new department as a power grab by Dolatabadi. It could also be seen as a complaint from regime conservatives that the Ahmadi-nejad Administration is far too liberal culturally.
The vice chair of the Majlis cultural committee, Javad Arianmanesh, told Fars that social rules are continually being broken “while the warnings of supporters of the revolution hardly bear any fruit.” The government needs to be firmer, he insisted.
On the other hand, President Ahmadi-nejad’s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, last month criticized the criticism of music by some senior clerics. “Some engage so much in worshipping that they actually become oblivious of God,” Mashai said bitingly. “If we raise an objection to what they say, they would brand us as blasphemous. The fact is that society’s preferences have changed.”
According to the periodical Arman, Mashai’s comments on this and other issues are now under investigation by a Majlis committee.
In the meantime, the 1890 play is still under suspension for, in effect, being too modern and daring. For bringing to Iran one of the West’s greatest masterpieces, a play whose protagonist has been dubbed a “female Hamlet,” the actors and director were summoned to the prosecutor’s office Wednesday to explain their behavior.
The critic Joseph Wood Krutch said Hedda is one of the first fully developed neurotic heroines of literature. Her aims and motives have a secret, personal logic of their own. She gets what she wants, but what she wants is not anything the normal usually admit, publicly at least, to be desirable. The character implies there is a secret world of aims and methods that is often much more important than the rational one.