Iranian Twitterers Inspire New Drama at Court

In a late change to its schedule, the Royal Court is hosting a scratch
performance of From the Tweets of Tehran in the
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs tomorrow evening (1 July 2009), as part of its
Rough Cuts programme.

Created by Royal Court associate director Ramin Gray and running as
part of the Article 19 series of performances,
From the Tweets of Tehran centres on the way that
many Iranians used the social networking service Twitter in the wake of
last month’s hotly disputed election results.

Twitter.com is a
free micro-blogging service that allows users to post ‘tweets’ of up to
140 characters in length, which can be read by anyone. Many Iranian
protesters used it to draw global attention to their cause after the
Iranian government blocked many other modes of communication in the
wake of the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

For the Article 19 series, the Court asked four
contemporary playwrights to write a ten minute play in response to
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has
the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.”

Other writers who will have their work showcased as part of the series
include April de Angelis (2 July), Anthony Neilson (3 July) and
Juan Mayorga (4 July). For more info visit www.royalcourttheatre.com