A Short Introduction to Iranian Drama (2024)

• 1 Before the Islamic conquest around 7th century, the Persians had been mainly Zoroastrian. However, (...)

6Additionally, forced conversion to Islam and religious prohibitions1 caused devastation to most of the achievements of ancient Persian civilizations by the new Islamic polity.

• 2 The Book of kings in English translation. This book is a long epic poem written by Ferdowsi between (...)

9It is not until the early days of 20^th century that, in the course of the Persian constitutional revolution followed by very fundamental social changes, new attitudes toward dramatic forms and theater in Iran emerged. Before that there was no awareness of the possibility to use theater as an independent art form with specific cultural and artistic functions. This awareness led to the classification of Iranian theater as an independent art form and the recognition of Ta’ziyeh [passion play], Naghali [narration], Kheymeh shab bazi [puppet show], Ruhowzi [burlesque], Shahnameh2 Khani [Shahnameh] and Namayeshe ghahve khanei [café play] as official national Iranian theatrical forms.

• 4 Jaber Anasori, Naqqāli - te’ātr-e dāstāni [Narration-Fictional Theater: Introduction on Performance (...)

12The foundation of early dramatic forms in Iran can be traced back in ancient era. The development of the theater and the wonders of acting found in the ceremonial performances, glorifying national and legendary heroes and humiliating their enemies, involved dances and musical narrations based on legends, myths, epic and lyric stories. In pre-Islamic Iran, as in other ancient civilizations, gods and myths, traditions and rituals constituted the basis of early dramas.As Anasory explains, «[r]esearchers have found some clues about early forms of narrative drama in ancient Iran by studying and examining the Parthian (247 BCE – 224 CE) treatises, legends, myths, historical books, archaeological remains and religious rites».4

• 5 Luke Beneva, Jahān-e ostur-e šenāsi [World of Mythology], translated by Jalal Satari, Markaz Public (...)

13Clerics, attendants and converts desired to visualize their ideologies and religious beliefs by representing myths, legends, symbols and religious principles. Ritual performances can be divided into two groups: masked dances and supplicatory rituals. Masked dances were performed in ancient times. Worshipping of gods, totems, and for entertainment. The participators by constantly repeating on imitative actions and transcendental experiences tried to ignore their own physical limitations and obtain supernatural powers: «In the ritual ceremony, the performers wore zoomorphic masks, danced and sang. They believed that people could ignore their own nature and achieve supernatural power by dancing and wearing masks».5

• 13 A term to denote priests of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster.

18Mir-e-Nowrouzi (messenger of the new day), Kuse bar nashin, and Mogh13 koshi (Magiphonia or killing a Magus) are good exemplar of joyful processional performances, marrying and festivities, in ancient Iran.

• 14 Bahram Beizai, Op.cit., p. 58.

21Also, Mogh koshi was performed in commemoration of the killing of Gaumāta Magus, the impostor (Spurious Bardiya). In attempting to find its historical source, researchers hypothesized that, in 522 BCE, Gaumāta Magus, who usurped the Iranian throne, was killed by Darius of the Achaemenid. That occurrence then led to the general massacre of the Magi. So, during this festive celebration, Magi were not allowed to appear in a public place, for one day.14

• 15 A creative and performing artist-singer, instrumentalist, dancer, storyteller, and professional fol (...)
• 16 Mehrdad Bahar, Jostār-i dar farhang-e irān [Investigation on Iranian Culture], Fekre rooz, Tehran 1 (...)

22In Iran, before the rise of Islam, Gusans15 or minstrels (bards) from the middle class of society were responsible for promoting art. They were narrators of the oral lore of ancient ages through several forms of art such as music, poetry, singing, storytelling, acting, dancing, juggling, magic and acrobatics, and even tightrope walking. Gusan had an important place in Iranian social life from the Median period to the late Sasanian dynasty (224-651 CE). After that, Gusans’ role became limited because of the opposition and hostility from the priests of the Zoroastrians and Christians in the west of the Sassanid empire. They believed that Gusans were infidels and their art was rooted in polytheism. Because of these pressures, Gusans’ art was widely blamed and they lost their role as exponents of the oral tradition. However, in the Achaemenid period minstrels were respected. They had to be skilled in verbal art of poetry, music, singing, fairy tales storytelling, epic storytelling, narrating history, acting, joking and even divination, but their main work was singing and playing music. After Alexander’s invasion (330 BCE) and the fall of the Achaemenid empire, the number of official minstrels, who worked in the king’s court, declined. However, itinerant minstrels kept working and did their duty in the transmission of oral traditions.16 Also, Jaber Anasory explains the subjects of Gusans’ poems:

• 19 See, for example, Peter Chelkowski, Narrative Painting and Painting Recitation in Qajar Era, «Muqar (...)

23Another kind of dramatic storytelling is picture-recitation19 and narration. Narrators tell and act the stories of national heroes, while showing special pictures to the public.

• 21 Rubin Pakbaz, Dā’era-t-ol-ma’āref-e honar [Encyclopedia of Art], Farhange Moaser, Tehran 1999, pp. (...)

24Some researchers, by mistake, have used a different definition for religious picture-recitation. They have interpreted the canvas (Pardeh) as the screen (curtain) behind which jugglers and puppeteers used to hide their techniques. In fact, this is not related to Pardeh-dari which is another name for religious picture-recitation. Picture-recitation is an outcome of narration, public painting (Naghali) and a combination of music and singing that existed before the Islamic era. It is noted that screen pictures are public images which have been illustrated according to the painter’s imagination, historical or mythical quotes and written scripts. This kind of painting is known as Naghashi Ghahveh khanei (café painting) which is a kind of public painting. This form reached its zenith in cafes during the1920s.21

• 22 Soheyla Najm, Op. cit., p. 37.

26Soheyla Najm believes that the narration in Iranian dramatic art, according to its theme and performance methods, can be divided into three types: the narration of Shahnameh, narration of stories and historical myths, and narration of religious events.22

• 23 Many Islamic rulings relating to the performing arts are gender based. There is no clear position i (...)
• 24 Bahram Beizai, Op. cit., p. 44.

27In fact, before the advent of Islam, dramatic musical storytelling in Iran was a combination of dance and music. Dancing, as an important part of Iranian rituals was a dramatic form for narrating various stories in different parts of Iran.23 Bahram Beizai notes that «among the remaining limited resources, the first evidence is a picture of a woman dancer and a musical instrument on a vase from the Sassanid period (224-651 CE) ».24

• 25 I used this English term for groups with a traditionally itinerant lifestyle. Gypsies who immigrate (...)
• 26 It is a geological formation in Western Asia and Central Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate (...)
• 27 Jacob Eduard Polak, Safarnāme-ye pulāk “irān va irāniān” [Itinerary of Polak “Iran and Iranian”], t (...)

28The Snake charming, tricks and magic, and the like are subtypes of Iranian street performances. This quasi-theatrical entertainment was called Ma’rekeh (show). This term includes some forms of drama which itinerant entertainers performed publicly. A showman had to be a wonderful storyteller, acrobat, magician and musician. Gypsies25 had important roles in the rise of this drama form in Iran, especially during the pre-Islamic era. Their life style and their dramatic techniques all over the world were summarized in dancing, acting, singing, bull fighting, roping, fortune telling, magic and charms casting spells. They were scattered in many places of Asia and Europe but significant numbers of them were inhabitants of Iran and Eastern Europe. The gypsies were survivors of emigrants who came to the Iranian Plateau26 during 420-438 CE.27

• 28 Jahangir Nasri Ashrafi, Namāyeš musiqi dar irān [Performance and Music in Iran], Arvan Publishing, (...)

29The traditions of these itinerant people were one of the most important sources of Iranian dramatic forms. Gypsies, through ongoing migrations and special life conditions, encountered cultures of different Iranian ethnic groups. For a long time, they transferred among those groups some forms of drama as well as some of their artistic features and techniques. Jahangir Nasri classified the effects of gypsies on Iranian drama as follows: «saving some forms of drama from oblivion, preserving some ancient local plays, maintaining and transferring many melodies and dances, aesthetic impacts and adding ethnic features on dances and musical melodies».28

• 30 Tombak is the principal percussion instrument of Persian music, Kamancheh is from Byzantine lyra an (...)

31Puppetry performances reached their climax in the Qajar era from 1785 to 1925. A person named Kaka Muhammad brought some puppets from China and developed this drama form. Music bands were considered as a main part of the puppetry shows in Iran which usually consisted of a Tombak and Kamancheh.30

• 31 William Floor, The History of Theater in Iran, Image Publishers, Washington DC 2005, p. 70.

33Kheymeh shab bazi, also known as Pardeh bazi (Curtain play) or lo’bat bazi (Marionette play), is an Iranian traditional puppet theater which has continued to the present. Kheymeh means tent; Shab is night, the time when a show is normally performed and Bazi means to play. Therefore, a literal translation is the evening performance in a puppet booth: «A string puppet tradition, the form has been called by this name since the seventeenth century. But it relates to older puppetry that may have developed under international influences with possible Indian and Mongolian impacts».31 They probably brought some costumes of public performances as shadow puppet shows to Iran.

• 32 Behzad Gharibpour, Vorud be donyā-ye ‘arusak va namāyeš-e ‘arusaki [Entering the World of Marionett (...)

35About the modern Kheymeh shab bazi ,Qaribpour mentions that «the traditional Kheymeh shab bazi was performed in a public place and for audiences that were primarily, if not exclusively, lower-class men. But when academic puppetry and cultural revival approach merged since 1970, Kheymeh shab bazi is often performed in theater halls for mixed-gender audiences including academics and intellectuals».32

• 33 Siah-Bazi and Ru Howzi both have a blackface clown character, involve lewd jokes, but Ru Howzi is a (...)
• 34 Farhad Nazerzadeh Kermani, Op. cit., pp.47-48.

37Furthermore, these performances led to the development of one of the main Iranian traditional improvisatory theater, Ru Howzi or Takhte Howzi33 (burlesque) in the Islamic period. This social satire theater was performed in the yard of a house on a Howz (small pool) which was covered by wood boards. This form had some typical and central character types who are famous with names such as Kachalak, Baghal (grocer), Siah (Black/ the clown). Among them, Siah-Bazi was more well-known because of the popularity of the character of Siah, who is the weakest character but the winner in the theatrical context. The actors had to adopt the female roles in performance because it was culturally intolerable to have women on the real stage. Periodically, however, the women came on the stage and this socio-political theater elaborated.34

• 35 Peter Chelkowski, Time Out of Memory: Ta’ziyeh, «TDR», 49, n. 4, (winter 2005), p. 17.

41In the definition of Ta’ziyeh , Chelkowski noted that one of the most highly developed and powerful examples of Iranian drama is Ta’ziyeh: the passion play of the Shiite Muslims performed in Iran which recounts the tragedy of Hussain. It is the only serious drama ever developed in the Islamic world, except for contemporary theater. The Ta’ziyeh was born in the middle of the eighteenth century (although many scholars believe it occurred as early as the end of the seventeenth century). Like Western passion plays, Ta’ziyeh dramas were originally performed outdoors at crossroads and other public places where large audiences could gather; then, performances took place in the courtyards of inns and private houses, but eventually a unique structure called Takiyeh or Hussainiyeh was constructed by individual towns for the staging of the plays.35

• 37 The longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. One of the cities ne (...)
• 38 Peter Brook, Learning on the Moment: A Conversation with Peter Brook, »Parabola«, n. 4, (May 1979), (...)

44Fabulously elegant stage attire was common at the Royal Theater during the reign of Nasser al-Din Shah (1848-1896). There was no attempt to make the actors’ garments historically accurate. Costumes are also meant to be representational. The main goal of costume design was to help the spectators identify a character and his nature by his clothing. There is a clear-cut division between the protagonists and antagonists in the Ta’ziyeh. The protagonists sing their parts while the antagonists recite their own. Further accentuation of this division is given by the color of their costumes. Color symbolism further helps the audience to recognize different dramatic characters and situations. When a white cloth is put on a protagonist’s shoulders or he dons a white shirt, it is understood that white symbolizes a shroud and he will soon sacrifice his life and be killed. In general, the acting technique, mimicry and gestures of the opponents are more pronounced than those of the protagonists. Men play female roles, and young boys play the roles of girls. In the past, and especially from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, actors of Ta’ziyeh were chosen according to their physical suitability for specific roles. Decor and props in Ta’ziyeh are totally symbolic. There is a marked difference between the starkness of the stage decor and the richness of the theater decoration. Symbolic props serve as decor: a basin of water, for example, represents the Euphrates37 River; a branch of a tree stands for a palm grove. The empty stage represents the desolate plain of Karbala. Since Ta’ziyeh is musical drama, vocal and instrumental performance is important. Singers are accompanied by a variety of drums, trumpets, flutes, and cymbals.38

• 39 Jamshid Malekpour, Namāyeš dar irān [Drama in Iran], Toos Publishing, Tehran 2007, p. 27.

45The arrival of Western style theater was a part of the modernization process in Iran. It was introduced to the society by the intellectuals’ activities and reformers attempts, which exerted a lot of positive consequences, during the period from1848 to 1896. Furthermore, propagation of modernism and democratic ideas, increasing the number of literates and newspapers, traveling abroad made Iranian intellectuals aware of the significant role of theater in the process of social changes.39

• 40 The first modern university and modern institution of higher learning in Persia, established in 185 (...)
• 41 The Persian Constitutional Revolution took place between 1905 and 1907. The revolution led to the e (...)

46A glance at the Pavlovich report about Iranian theater indicates that Iranians acquaintance with Western theater lasted for a century and took place in several ages. Initially, a bloody campaign in Georgia, which was done by Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar in 1796, caused a bloody theatrical link among Tehran and Tbilisi. Afterward, sending five educated Iranian students to the United Kingdom in 1815 led to the familiarity with British theater. Dispatching the first Iranian representatives to the court of Russia in 1828 caused visiting the theater in St. Petersburg. Establishing the Dar-al-Fonun School40 and translation movement in around 1851 speeded up the entrance of European dramatic literature to Iran. In addition, these changes also provided the base of the Persian Constitutional Revolution.41

• 42 Mark Pavlovich, Enqelāb-e mašrute dar irān [Constitutional Revolution in Iran], translated by Mehrd (...)

47After these fundamental changes, the first specific group of music and drama whose name was Okhovat (Fraternity) was formed and most of their works were critical pantomimes against the harsh and autocratic government. In 1909, Farhang (culture) Company emerged and its main ambition was to establish modern schools. Actually, they started to use theater as a cultural and a money-making activity to achieve their goal. In 1911, National Theater Group was founded and they believed theater activities can cause to social and political changes; their six-year record is full of critical comedies and tragedies. The first performance of the National Theater Group was Gogol’s the government inspector, then followed, some dramas by Beaumarchais and Molière.42

• 43 I refer the reader to number 23. In addition, I should emphasize that some Muslim extremist clergie (...)

48Also, there were other scattered groups such as the Armenians with the Caucasus and Iran who had a significant influence on Iranian theater, as well as groups of the Ottoman Turks, and the Zoroastrians theater group that were active in 1910. In 1911 a group of social-democrat women performed several famous plays whereas many women were prohibited even from watching the performances.43

• 44 Jamshid Malekpour, Op. cit, pp. 48-50.

49Concurrent with these activities, various groups were still performing traditional forms of theater in public places and Ta’ziyeh became well-known as an independent theatrical form.44

• 46 Ivi, p. 248.

52The advent of a four-page journal which called Tiart (Theater), on the fifth day of May 1908, was not only an innovation, but it also demonstrated the intelligence of its inventor, Mirza Reza Naini. He introduced great Western writers such as Shakespeare and Molière and then started to write the first reviews of staged plays; although those reviews were not about theatrical performances, but rather they were an impressionistic criticism related to the plot of dramas, they helped to popularize the theater.46 Furthermore, these social changes had some direct influence on literature and writing style as Arianpoor says

• 48 The Iran-Iraq War, also known as the First Persian Gulf War, was an armed conflict between the Isla (...)

54The theater of Iran from the ancient era until the present had four turning points: The Arabs invasion and the advent of Islam, the Constitutional Revolution, the Islamic Revolution and the eight-year war.48 Actually, what has been presented in this paper is not a scrutiny of the contemporary theater after the Constitutional Revolution, the Islamic Revolution, and the Iran-Iraq war that need elaborate technical discussion in future.