Lineup Selected for Ritual Theater Festival

The 18th Traditional & Ritual Theater Festival, to be held August 30-September 6 in Tehran, has selected 21 plays for its lineup.

Organized under the auspices of the Center for Ritual and Traditional Theater, Iranian Association of Performing Arts and the Performing Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the festival promotes research in reviewing and identifying traditional origins of performing arts, ISNA reported.

The festival will have several sections: pond play (a satirical play originally performed on a wooden platform above a courtyard pond); lamentation ceremonies (in Persian: shabih-khani); traditional puppet play; review of ritual-traditional plays staged in 2015-2017; raconteur and folklore narratives, street performance, rituals and performing games; and traditional plays.

The 5th International Seminar on Ritual and Traditional Plays and the 4th Jalal Sattari Special Award ceremony, commemorating the contribution of the celebrated author and mythologist to national culture, are included in the event.

Veteran actor, theater director and author Davoud Fat’hali-Beygi, 66, is the secretary of the festival. He is the head of the Center for Traditional & Ritual Plays based in Tehran.

Jury members of the festival are Mohammad Hossein Nasser Bakht, Seyed Azim Mousavi and Mehdi Lotfi -- all playwrights and theater directors.

The jury members selected 21 plays from across the country. They are to be performed during the festival. Among them are ‘Azeri Wedding Ritual’ from Tabriz, capital of East Azarbaijan; and ‘Shah & Vizier Game’ from Kermanshah, capital of Kermanshah Province.

From Qeshm, Hormuzgan Province, a play titled ‘Zar’ is presented to the secretariat. It is based on namesake ritual practiced in southern Iran, the Middle East and Africa to exorcise demons and spirits from possessed individuals.

‘Happiness Doll’ from Marand, East Azarbaijan; ‘Mir of Norouz’ from Tafresh, Markazi Province; and ‘7+1’ from Isfahan are among other plays.

According to Fat’hali-Beygi, participants in the upcoming edition of Traditional & Ritual Theater Festival have increased compared to the past.

There is a section for children and young adults. It has been introduced to support and promote ritual-traditional plays created by the youth. A considerable number of young storytellers are also participating, executive director of the festival Peyman Shariati said.