An Intertextual Interpretation of Mythology in the Top Three Plays of Children and Adolescent Theater Festivals

Apart from being a means of entertainment, the dramatic works for children serve, on the one hand, as educational tools and, on the other, as an artistic means to pass the legacy of the past (traditions, rites, religion, politics, and the socio-ethical norms of society) over to the consciousness of the current generation. This is especially true, when the authors of the works draw on such important structural elements as time, place, plot, characters and, in times, even, the integrity of a story in an intertextual interaction with ancient texts. Significant adaptations are myth and mythical narratives reflected always in various forms including stories, dramas and screenplays. Persian myth can help enrich the visual language and spiritual richness of the play, reflect national themes, and introduce children to national identities and some of the rituals and beliefs of their past. The themes are one of the most important elements of traditional Persian anecdotes that, in addition to structure, also strengthen their semantic and aesthetic aspects. The origins of fictional themes are numerous and sometimes unclear. Some of them are mythological elements and others are the representation of people's culture. Motifs change their functions over the centuries. One of the most widely used motifs in Iranian culture is the apple, the forbidden fruit, which due to its characteristics and its diverse functions, has a significant presence in both mythology, modern scripts and has even found its way into children's plays. Dramatic Literature is the most appropriate mass media for a young audiences with a very high impact factor. The play (which is the product of the imagination of the writer, director and actor), when accompanied by reality (traces of reality woven into its fabric), will be able to connect and relate to the delicate mind of a child by means of imagination. The imagination of a child is the product of paintings and images, speeches and gestures which he/she can relate to, that is a kind of basic creativity. A child's mind is highly imaginative, so works created for children should appeal to their imaginations and engage them creatively with the work. This is made easier by means of myths and mythical themes. Using Genette’s transtextuality theory, especially hypertextuality, in a descriptive-analytic fashion, the ways in which the myth of the forbidden fruit (Apple) in some of the top plays of children and adolescent theater festivals are recreated are studies. The most important result revealed are as follows: the authors of the plays have mostly used the myth of the forbidden fruit by using the method of text extension (quantitative transformation). Of course, in some of the plays, in order to better understand and make the play attractive, the content is also seen. For this reason, the hidden angles of these plays are better understood in connection with these myths. In general, children are the purest creatures on earth, their world is full of love and friendship. Their existence causes hope, affirmation of human aspirations, human interests and emotions, honesty and correctness.