Spotlight on 'inhumane' treatment by Australia catches high-level attention in Iran

The brutal murder of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati at the Manus Island detention camp has been dramatised in a new play staged in the Iranian capital Tehran.

Simply titled Manus, the script draws on direct quotes from asylum seekers held in Australia's offshore detention camps, and has drawn an audience of high-ranking officials.

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Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister and the man trusted as the chief negotiator in the nuclear deal that saw international sanctions lifted from Iran, attended one night and later mingled with the actors and a former asylum seeker held on Manus Island.

"I tried to invite authorities of Foreign Ministry because of the issue of my play that directly related to their job," the play's director, Nazanin Sahamizadeh, told Fairfax Media from Tehran.

The Turnbull government has been seeking for more than two years to convince Tehran to accept the forced return of Iranian asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat but have not been judged to be refugees - a request Iran has so far refused.

Around 7000 Iranians have been granted bridging visas to live in the Australian community, with several hundred Iranian asylum seekers also thought to be held on Manus Island and Nauru.

Another senior Iranian diplomat last year criticised conditions in Australia's detention centres as "definitely inhumane".

Hossein Babaahmadi, who spent 75 days on Manus Island before volunteering to return to Iran in 2013, helped organise interviews for the script with asylum seekers who were in the camps.

He said the interviewees included Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian journalist who remains on Manus and was close to Barati.

"The conditions on Manus Island were inhumane, they didn't treat us like a human being," Mr Babaahmadi said.

Ms Sahamizadeh said the play focuses on eight Iranian characters who fled Iran for Australia, only to be held in Pacific camps.

The main scene details the riot at Manus Island in February 2014, where 23-year-old Barati was repeatedly beaten with a piece of wood with a nail in the end of it, before a large rock was dropped on his head.

Last year, a Papua New Guinea court found two local men found guilty of murdering Barati.

Media restrictions are heavy in Iran and the country is regularly singled out for human rights abuses.

"All characters described their story when they were in Iran and had problems," Ms Sahamizadeh said when asked whether it was awkward to show stories in Iran about people claiming to be at risk in Iran.

"I had read about Manus two years back and as it was new for me it got me interested," she said.

"I found that it is very important and critical issue that many people have not been aware about it and finally I made my decision to make a play of it."

The play ran for a month in the Qashqai Hall of Tehran's City Theatre Complex, with the final show last week, and Ms Sahamizadeh said it was attended by almost 3000 people.

Ms Sahamizadeh said she hoped to eventually bring the play to the stage in Australia and then other countries.