Theater Serves to Eliminate Social Upheavals

Abdoljamil Khaleghi, Afghan author, theater and cinema actor and deputy director general of performing arts of Afghanistan Ministry of Information and Culture as well as an advisor to its play writing section, attended the three-day Meeting of General Directors of Performing Arts of West Asian Countries in Tehran, irantheater.ir reported.

He said that the meeting was his first visit to Iran and added that Iran and Afghanistan are neighbors, have common language, culture and art with a friendly relationship. The visit, the director said, gave him a chance to know Iran more.

“I watched “The World’s Last Pomegranate” by Ebrahim Poshtekouhi and “Spell of the Burned Temple” in Iran. Both pieces have inspired me and I am going to stage a piece in Afghanistan, using these inspirations,” Mr Khaleghi said.

He added that theater in Iran and Afghanistan was close as “Caligula” was staged in Afghanistan two years ago and he had stared in the piece and it was directed by Homayoun Ghanizadeh in Iran about a year ago.

The director said that this meeting would not be his last visit to Iran and he was going to travel to the country again to be able to share experiences with his Iranian colleagues.

Also, Afghanistan was going to expand cultural ties with Iran to send two or three students from Afghanistan National Theater to study theater in Iran at PhD level, he added.

On huge audience of street theater in Afghanistan, the official said that it had been 14 years that theater had become more active in Afghanistan and many street theaters were performed over the past three years, he added.

Mr Khaleghi said that in addition to Afghanistan National Theater, many private theater troupes had been formed, which perform lots of pieces.

“The Afghan theater does not have as many audience who are willing to buy ticket to watch a piece. That is why a group of addicts starred in street pieces in several parks in Afghanistan for people to watch them for free,” he explained. “This is where Iran theater is different from that of Afghanistan. Both pieces I watched in Tehran were sold out. But we have to invite officials to national theater to see our pieces or we have to perform street theater in parks and …”

Of course, street theater like the program organized by Afghanistan Drugs Control Ministry have enthusiastic audience, he stressed.