Chess with the Doomsday Machine - Opening Night

Newest Production Hits Home

by Onelight Theatre

Halifax, February 6, 2014: Onelight Theatre continues its first season as resident theatre company at Alderney Landing with its newest production, Chess with the Doomsday Machine. After returning home from representing Canada at the Fadjr International Theatre Festival in Tehran, the show will launch its Canadian premiere on February 6th 2014.

In 1980, a surprise attack on the Iranian city of Abadan marked the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the badly damaged city but a small number of civilians chose to stay, living in a city under siege. Chess with a Doomsday Machine is their story.

Currently on tour in Iran, the production debuted in Abadan, the birthplace of the story and that of Onelight Theatre’s Artistic Director, Shahin Sayadi. “Taking this work to stage in the place it all started, my hometown, has truly been an honour, “ says Shahin Sayadi, Artistic Director, “I’m looking forward to bringing it home to Canada next month.”

Developed as an international co-production with artists in Iran and Canada, Chess with the Doomsday Machine, is an original adaptation of Iranian author Habib Ahmadzadeh’s novel of the same name. The play, written and directed by Shahin Sayadi, employs a unique combination of English, Farsi, and unspoken communication, to tell the story of the challenges faced by a young soldier as he balances his duty to defend his home with the need to protect a band of misfits who have stayed in Abadan when most civilians have long-since fled.

Young men became soldiers, their fathers cooked for the forces and their mothers searched in vain for sons who did not return from the front. Row houses, once the humble dwellings of oil refinery workers, became burned-out bunkers for street-fights. And an ice cream factory storage freezer was commandeered as a morgue – the ice cream passed out to unknowing soldiers.

Chess with the Doomsday Machine returns to Canada to premiere at the Alderney Landing Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia February 6 to 14, 2014. Tickets are on sale now at the Alderney Landing Box Office or online at ticketpro.ca

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About Onelight Theatre

Onelight Theatre is a professional theatre company that has been developing and producing works in Halifax, Nova Scotia since 2002. Recently, Onelight Theatre has relocated to Alderney Landing, becoming the new resident theatre company at the complex.www.onelighttheatre.com. Contact: Lorelei Phillips Shahin Sayadi 902-425-6812 or 902-425-6812 lorelei@prismaticfestival.comshahin@onelighttheatre.com

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