Piece Will Be Performed in Tekyeh Moavenolmolk

Saeed Zabihi, author, director and actor of the street theater, “The World Will Be Destroyed”, said that the piece would be performed in Kermanshah under the program of Ashura (10^th of Muharram) to Arbaeen (40^th day after the martyrdom of the third Shiite Imam Hussein (AS) on the Day of Ashura in Karbala in Iraq, irantheater.ir reported.

“The World Will Be Destroyed” would be a combination of Naghali (narrating Iranian fables, myths and epics remained from ancient times), Pardeh-Khaani (a visual form of story-telling from a big cloth (Pardeh) on which events are painted) and Ta’zieh passion play, he explained.

The director added that the Pardeh-Khaan (story-teller) would use tiles of Tekyeh Moavenolmolk (a century-old Tekyeh (a theater for Ta’zieh performances for the mourning month of Muharram) in Kermanshah) to narrate Battle of Karbala, which took place on Muharram 10^th (October 10) of 680 AD between a small supporters and relatives of the third Shiite Imam and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Hussein (AS) and a large military forces from Yazid, the Umayyad caliph.

The street piece would tell the story of the main characters of Karbala, Ali Asghar, Ali Akbar, Abolfzal (AS) and Imam Hussein (AS) through Naghali and Pardeh-Khaani, he added.

Mr Zabihi said that each event would end with a Ta’zieh play, meaning that Naghal and Pardeh-Khaan (story-tellers) start with Hazrat-e Ali Asghar story, for instance, and then his martyrdom would be performed in the form of Ta’zieh play.

“In fact, “The World Will Be Destroyed” would use Persian methods of theater and place (Tekyeh Moavenolmolk),” he said and added that the tekyeh had tiles in which the Battle of Karbala were painted, which would be used by Naghal.

On writing “The World Will Be Destroyed”, the author said that it was a lengthy process and he decided to use tiles of Tekyeh Moavenolmolk when he visited the place to write a 50-minute play. “That was difficult because I wrote a play, which needed more than two hours to be performed. But I finally managed to reach the duration time to 45 to 50 minutes after making some cuts,” the author explained.

Mr Zabihi said that “The World Will Be Destroyed”, a work by Baran Theater Group, would have 10 performances in Tekyeh Moavenolmolk in Kermanshah. The piece would have two actors (Mr Zabihi and a Naghal Hashem Pourmohammadi) and music composer was Saeed Darakeh who would play Tabl (drum) and Senj (a percussion instrument which does not have skin. It consists of two metal pieces which look like plates. The senj player beats these two metal pieces together).