Discussions at academic conferences rarely provide compelling material for theatre, especially when their closing remarks and conclusions appear predictable or known in advance. Yet in Iranian Conference (2017), Ivan Vyrypaev brings together panellists from diverse backgrounds at a conference at the University of Copenhagen: a professor of international relations, a professor and social activist, a theologian, a journalist, the president of a charity organization and the prime minister’s wife, a priest, a retired conductor, and an Iranian Nobel Prize winner in literature.

The event is proceeding as usual, but individual presentations are increasingly straying from the original topic, becoming subjective; and instead of using scientific methodology to discuss Iranian issues, the increasingly trivial, anecdotal, and esoteric conference speeches are turning into an absurd farce. Reflection on the differences between religious traditionalism and humanistic rationalism, in light of the topic at hand, is increasingly turning into, as one of the participants put it, a clash between Allah and Coca-Cola.

“We live in a moment when human beings and human rights are increasingly ignored, while force and power take precedence; a moment in which the complacency of the Western world seeks refuge either in religious traditionalism or in the cynicism of humanistic rationalism; a moment when inherited cultural baggage becomes an excuse for xenophobia, racism, nationalism, and the distasteful supremacy of the white man. It is precisely here that Vyrypaev, without grand gestures, begins to evoke a profound sense of guilt,” reflects director Nina Rajić Kranjac.

Playwright and director Ivan Vyrypaev lives in Warsaw, having left Russia in opposition to the regime of the Russian Federation. His plays are staged worldwide, from the United States to South Korea, and are already well known to Slovenian audiences. With Iranian Conference he is presented for the first time on the stage of the SNT Drama Ljubljana.