Iran Theater

Tehran City Theatre: built in 1934-7
Architect: Amir-Ali Sardar Afkhami

No I don't mean the passion-play between Cheney and Ahmadi-Nejad.
I mean an actual theater community inside Iran.

Chant This Season With Me, Musical.
Director: Hossein Parsai
Composer: Majid Entezami
(Watch a clip of Makhmalbaf's film celebrating Iran's 100 years of cinema, with Entezami's score)

Here's an old article from iranian.com:

At the juncture of modernity and tradition, at the interstices of time immemorial and the political reality of the moment, the Iranian society is witnessing a movement whose demands will determine the fruitfulness of the artistic future of the country. ...

At no time in modern Iranian history has the country been witness to such a surge in cultural activity. This, of course, is not an objective evaluation, but a simple observation.
To stop only at one example, the City Theater has so many shows ready to be staged that it is hard to keep up with new ones appearing. The notorious bureaucratic disorder that is in place actually ends up shuffling and bungling many of them to the point where earlier in the year the director of BLOOD WEDDING, Ali Rafii, threatened to abort the show (written by Garcia Lorca and translated by Shamloo, and staged for a second time in the past year) because, he complained, interjections by other programs (notably Shahram Nazeri's concert in November) affected a discontinuity in the group's performance. He didn't make good on his threat, and the audience kept coming back for more, so to speak, turning the show into a box-office triumph.

The success of DANDOON TALA, a play by the renowned film director Davood Mirbaqery, has pre-empted the showing of THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI, a play by Bertolt Brecht, which was scheduled to start at primetime in late December, but which was instead slotted to 4 pm with much delay. According to the press, DANDOON TALA has been the biggest moneymaker in Iranian theater history, raking in over 7 billion rials over a period of eight months.

Since two years ago, the City Theater has opened two smaller stages: the Qashqaii, and earlier this month, the House of Khorshid. Both are low capacity and easily sell out.

Merry theatrical matrimonies have also been consummated in the prolific dominion of Ataollah Mohajerani. A particularly effective one seems to be the 1997-established PARCHIN which boasts Bahram Beyzaii as a member, but also well know directors like Hamid Amjad, Mohammad Rahmanian, and actors like Mojdeh Shamsaii, Mahtab Nasirpour, and Habib Rezaii. Other groups like NARGESS SIAH (currently staging Genet's LES NÈGRES in the House of Khorshid) are also worth mentioning.

Twenty years into the Revolution of 1979, the Iranian theater is more alive than ever. Though overshadowed heavily by its more prosperous visual associate in the film industry, the theater is making it dent in ways that can be said to silverline a dramatic promise in the cultural scene of the country. Perhaps it is not too farfetched to expect a cultural renaissance of sorts in the space that has opened since the election of Mohammad Khatami into office.

When the Iranian president of the time was making progress by bounds and leaps in promoting cultural productivity, he did it on the premise of "dialogue of civilizations". He also was trying hard for reconciliation with the US. At that time, Washington dismissed him to be just a "figure" with no executive power. Thus his pleas for peace were dismissed.

It is curious how the US has started to take the "presidential figure" of Iran seriously "now" with Ahmadinejad, who a) won election as dubiously as did Bush and b)is openly challenged by the Supreme Leadeship of Iran! Don't you think?

So is it too far fetched to imagine that the West and Israel are more afraid of a beautiful and free Iran, therefore more determined to oppress a democratic Iran; and that fanticism serves their interest better?!