Shabaḥ-i Birīmur: Persian 1403

Barrymore's Ghost opens up the life of the legendary actor, John Barrymore, in a unique, theatrical manner. Mr. John Barrymore, or Jack Barrymore, or Jake Barrymore, is presented as a ghost haunting an unknown theater, which, at the moment, is in rehearsal for a play. The gods have sentenced Barrymore to this purgatorial existence as penance for his abandonment of the theater and squandering of his talents, in pursuit of fame, greed, and dissipation. Barrymore disputes these assertions of the gods as he painfully and humorously examines the spectrum of his life. He chronicles his ascendancy to the throne as the finest classical actor of his generation; his arrival to the pinnacle of movie stardom; his intimate and compassionate relationships with his sister Ethel and his brother Lionel; and the explosive debacles of his four marriages. The play has wit, terror, agony and hope, as we watch a mythical character explore the truths and deceptions of his extraordinary life.