Howard Brenton, Iranian Nights

Steve Barfield (University of Human Development, Suleymanyia, Iraqi Kurdistan)

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1998

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Iranian Nights

(Royal Court, 1989), written by Howard Brenton in collaboration with Tariq Ali, was a short and timely response to the notorious

fatwa

edict issued against Salman Rushdie, for writing

The Satanic Verses

, by Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatolla Khomeini. Written in five days, and referring in its title to the

One Thousand and One Nights

, the play defended Rushdie in the name of free speech, while explaining the left’s perspective on the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the contexts of both racism against immigrants to Britain and as a relatively recent, right-wing political development in Islamic countries. It attracted a reasonable (and unusual) number of Muslim audience members to the Royal Court and, despite mixed reviews, certainly prompted debate about this issue.…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

900 words

Citation: Barfield, Steve. "Iranian Nights". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9072, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Howard Brenton, Iranian Nights

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback