Shakespeare speaks Persian (Adaptation and performance in contemporary Iranian theatre)

Shakespeare speaks Persian explores how contemporary Iranian theatre adapts Shakespeare to engage with censorship, political authority and cultural regulation. Focusing on twenty-first-century productions, the book examines how Iranian playwrights and theatre-makers transform Shakespeare’s works into vehicles for addressing contested issues, including gender politics, bodily regulation and political dissent. Through detailed analysis of dramatic texts, staging practices and performance strategies, it demonstrates that adaptation functions not simply as cultural translation but as a means of negotiating restrictive conditions. Shakespeare emerges as a flexible theatrical language through which sensitive ideas can be displaced, reframed and communicated. Combining adaptation studies, performance analysis and censorship theory, the book offers new insights into the relationship between theatre and power in contemporary Iran. It makes a significant contribution to scholarship on Global Shakespeare, performance under authoritarian systems and the political possibilities of theatrical adaptation.