Friday evening (Sept. 26) the open area in front of the City Theater in Daneshjou Park was packed with art fans who observed an unusual artistic performance by two virtuosos to protest against and display brutalities of the militant group Islamic State (IS).
The program started at 5:15 pm with Iranian-Assyrian music composer Honiball Yousef playing the piano. A few minutes later, the sound of drumbeats was heard by the crowds encircling the simple stage set up for the performance. A man, banging a drum, parted his way through the audience followed by four men, their faces covered with black masks, carrying a heavy white bag on their shoulders.
Heavy drumbeats accompanied by the piano’s deep notes, and the sight of black-masked men created a ghastly visual and everyone gasped, eagerly waiting to see what would happen next.
From inside the bag, a ‘headless’ man wearing black clothes came out, and began to writhe uncontrollably. It was actor Yaser Khaseb, playing the role of a Takfiri terrorist, performed through mime. After finding his head, he attacked two rag dolls with a knife and symbolically murdered them.
Events Unfold
During the 45-minute duet performance, the sad story of events unfolding in Iraq and Syria was told through the tunes of the piano and impromptu mime. The rag dolls represented the innocent children slaughtered by the extremists since the beginning of 2014.
The duet of body and piano went on displaying symbolic beheadings of people, as shown in videos released earlier by the militant group.
As the show came to an end, the crowds gave the artists a standing ovation and the performers bowed to the fans.
Expressing his gratitude to the masses for attending the event, Yousef in a few words said, “I thank you for coming and hope you enjoyed our performance.”
Khaseb also thanked the audience and pointed out that having a body performance with the piano was odd and at the same time somehow difficult as it was the first time he had such an experience. “From the beginning we decided the body performance would be impromptu. So we didn’t have any rehearsals. We only talked about the purpose of the program which was to protest IS crimes. There were just 7 codes between us. As I had no preparation in advance, I brought some stuff with me to the stage that I thought could be useful for my performance. I tried to create a balance between the music and what I had in mind,” he added.
The audience again clapped and cheered the duo with some rushing forward to congratulate them.
