Marx, Hamlet, and a Sandwich


In summer 2015, Shirin and I translated Marx in Soho by Howard Zinn and Hamlet in the Village of Lower Mrdusa by Ivo Breshan into Persian. Throughout the translation, there wasn’t a moment when we didn’t dream of staging them for the first time in Iran. So we planned to perform both plays, simultaneously, in two different locations in Tehran.There were plenty of quiet, unofficial theater spaces scattered across Tehran—venues hidden within cultural centers, libraries, and museums. We proposed Marx in Soho for the Ezzatollah Entezami Museum and Hamlet for the Qasr Museum (formerly Qasr Prison). 
The Hamlet production had twelve actors, while Marx was a monologue. One of Hamlet’s more experienced actresses, who played Ophelia, also prepared to play Marx, with a backup actress on standby.For Hamlet’s censorship review, they sent an actor who knew most of our cast. Over half the performance took place outdoors, in the courtyard behind the venue. It was midday in June, and it was clear he was suffering in the heat, though he pretended otherwise. The play ran for two hours. At the end, he asked, “What does the key around the neck of waitress symbolize?”“It symbolizes nothing,” I said. “It’s just the key to her café.”“To avoid any confusion she should keep it in her pocket.”With that “problem” solved, he approved our performing permit.
The next morning, Marx’s censorship review was at 11 a.m. at the Entezami Museum. The censor person was a university theater lecturer. He simply said, “Come tomorrow and collect your permit.”So both plays were approved.Marx was at 6 p.m. in Entezami, and Hamlet was at 8 p.m. in Qasr. As soon as Marx ended, the lead actor had to race across the city with Shirin to make it in time for Hamlet. For a month, we staged both plays without a single minute of delay.
But the best part came around 9 p.m for us, when Hamlet’s third act began. At that point, Shirin and I had nothing left to do until the play ended. She would rush across the street to buy two falafel sandwiches with sodas, and we’d sit under a tree in the garden, in the dark. The view before us behind the audience, far in the background, was the stage. We devoured our sandwiches, and we wrapped each other in an embrace and savored the moment.