Tehran theatre halls are staging Iranian and western plays especially for children and young adults.
‘Zardak and the Poor Woman’, written by Qumars Ghanbari-Azar and Sepideh Dabiri, and directed by Amir-Reza Tavakkoli and Hamid Nadimi, is a 50-minute play staged at Niavaran Culture House and will run through August 28.
The play is the story of a cat, whose owner, a poor woman, can’t afford to feed it. Gradually, the cat becomes emaciated and weak, and earns the nickname ‘Zardak Khan’, (literally the pale cat). Zardak Khan then leaves the poor woman for a rich woman in the city. There, he experiences different things.
Directed by Reza Bahrami, ‘Old Man and the Tiger’ is a folklore, in which a gullible old man is cheated by a tiger, trapped in a cage. The tiger misuses the old man’s kindness to prey on other animals.
Live traditional music, shadow game, ‘naqqali’ (Iranian traditional story-telling) and ‘pardeh khani’, another form of traditional story-telling, are included in the show, creating a rich traditional atmosphere.
Written by Ali Khakbazan, the show is underway at Honar Theatre Hall till September 21.
Western Plays
Wisley Middleton’s ‘Tomato Plant Girl’, directed by Maryam Akbari, is a performance involving movement, music and magic which centers on the joys and tyrannies of friendship among little girls. A comedy, it probes the themes of self-esteem, peer pressure, loyalty and self-worth.
Farid Navai, Mojtaba Mehdi, Ramin Kohan and Roshanak Karimi are in the musical show, organized by Termeh Theatre Group. The 50-minute show will be staged through September 25.
Playwright Julia Donaldson’s ‘The Gruffalo,’ a book for children, is being staged by Arash Sharifzadeh till September 22.
It tells the story of a mouse, the protagonist of the book, taking a walk in the woods. The book has sold over 13 million copies, has won several prizes for children’s literature, and has been staged as a play several times. The play was also selected for the International Children Theatre Festival in Tunis, Tunisia.
Both the plays are running at Honar Theatre Hall.
