The complexities of America’s current geopolitical dealings with Middle East countries can make it easy to forget that our recent history is filled with such complexity. As we stare down the threat of a saber-rattling Iran, what can we learn about how we responded to a similar clash in the past?

Salt Lake Acting Company’s world-premiere new production explores one such complex event—the Iran Hostage Crisis—and what that piece of history can tell us about our present. Kathleen Cahill’s The Persian Quarter begins on the final day of the crisis, as Ronald Reagan is becoming president in January 1981, with the interaction between one American hostage and one of her captors. But the events also cross over into 2009 New York City, as the daughters of those two individuals meet in a Columbia University classroom and face the legacy of their parents’ experience. The playwright will participate in a discussion after the Sunday, Feb. 6, matinee.

The Persian Quarter @ Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North, 801-363-7522, Feb. 4-27, $35-$38. SaltLakeActingCompany.org