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History of Theater in Iran (Paperback, New)
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History of Theater in Iran (Paperback, New)
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Although most people do not speak of theater and Iran in the same
breath, dramatic expression has always been a fixture of Iranian
culture. Some 2500 years ago, kings and commoners alike were
regaled by comic theater in the form of dance and mime, accompanied
by music. The dancers often wore masks, a vestige of an earlier era
when such dances were enacted as religious rites. Comic drama also
took a slapstick form, in which social situations were lampooned
and people ridiculed by imitating their accents and behavior. Yet
another ancient dramatic art was that of puppetry, now known to
have exist much earlier than its attested date of about 1000 CE.
Only glove and string puppets were popular in Iran; though briefly
practiced, shadow puppetry failed to win a following. Like comic
dance and mime, narrative drama originated in religious rites. Over
time, religious ceremony evolved gave rise to a popular secular
epic tradition that was very popular in pre-Islamic Iran. The bard
enjoyed an important place in social life, and the verbal arts of
poetry, storytelling, elegy and recitation thrived, often
accompanied by music. In Islamic times, this art form continued and
was given impetus by elegies and public recitations about the
heroic deeds of ancient kings. In addition, Iran produced the only
form of Islamic religious epic drama (ta'ziyeh-khvani), which
reenacts the martyrdom of Imam Hoseyn. In traditional Iranian
theater, there was no real difference between high and low culture,
although artists attached to the royal court and sponsored by the
rich tended to be more competent than those who performed for the
public at large. With the exception of religious and narrative
drama, written texts were seldom used. The artists-whether
comedian, mime, puppeteer, elegist or storyteller performed both in
public and private spaces. European theater, with its reliance on a
written text and normative rather than improvisatory acting,
arrived in 1878 and was part of the modernization process in Iran.
It enjoyed a hey-day in the early years of the twentieth century,
but has experienced many ups-and-downs since then. Today, it once
again enjoys great popularity. At the same time, traditional
theatre is being rediscovered, and playwrights are using some of
its forms to develop indigenous modern Iranian theatre-a melding of
the deep past and dynamic present. Cover painting: A mime dance by
a group of professional entertainers accompanied by musicians,
ascribed to Mirza Mohammad al-Hoseyni, Iran 1613. Courtesy of Freer
Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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