Mohammad Rahmanian pays tribute to Homa Rusta at Fajr theater festival

Mohammad Rahmanian paid tribute to actress and stage director Homa Rusta (1944-2015) with his play “Invitation to Two Joined Plays” performed at the 34th Fajr International Theater Festival on Wednesday.

The play, performed at the Qashqai Hall of Tehran’s City Theater Complex, was warmly received by the audience and brought tears to their eyes in remembrance of the veteran actress who left the family of Iranian theater after a long battle with cancer at the age of 69, the Persian service of MNA reported on Thursday.


Addressing the audience, Rahmanian said that the play is comprised of two acts, the second of which is dedicated to Rusta.



He said that he planned to perform the play this past summer while Rusta was still alive, but it never happened due to the actress’s illness.


The second part of the play features an actress (performed by Rahmanian’s wife Mahtab Nasirpur) who is preparing to go to a theater to give her best performance, however after she gets ready she forgets where she wants to go.


The actress begins with the famous phrase Rusta had uttered in the film “The Passengers” (1991) by Bahram Beizai in which she stares at the camera and says, “We will not arrive in Tehran; we will die”.


All the characters Nasirpur performed on stage reflected the different roles Rusta had played in her stage and screen roles over the years, which made the audience feel missing Rusta and her performances.


Rusta was the widow of the prominent Iranian stage director and playwright Hamid Samandarian, who died of liver cancer at the age of 81 in summer 2012.