Lolita
2018
Stage Theatre
Writer
"Lolita" is a project I’m really glad I had the chance to write, and I’m grateful it was staged and received warmly by audiences. It took about a year and a half and eleven revisions, with the cast workshopping and practicing each version. It was truly a group effort, and the team performed it nicely at Tehran’s City Theatre, one of Iran’s main theatre venues. Working on it helped me push my boundaries in using language as music through rhythmic patterns in the dialogue, and it became the experiment I learned the most from.
Although the play shares its title with Nabokov’s Lolita, it is not an adaptation. Instead, it explores the theme of child abuse and its lasting effects on victims. The surreal narrative follows a group of characters who set sail in search of a new land where they can escape their past. They arrive on an island inhabited by a mysterious figure named Lolita, who offers them release from their traumatic nightmares by cutting their eyelids—so they can no longer dream. Through this allegorical story, the play examines themes of women’s rights, free will, and the formation of law.