Actor and director Javad Ensafi is to bring on stage five years of research about Norouz (Iranian New Year) traditions and festivities in the form of a play based on the vernal equinox.
Ensafi’s play titled ‘Norouz Khani’ (Norouz singing), a special folk music performance, is set to start on March 17, four days prior to the beginning of the New Year, and will be staged at Shahrzad Theater House in Tehran until April 20, Tiwall.com reported.
The practice of Norouz Khani is more prevalent in the northern provinces of Mazandaran and Gilan. In the play written and directed by Ensafi, 66, he has included the folk performances of the two provinces, along with the songs performed by ‘Haji Firouz,’ (a blackface character clad in bright red, wearing a felt hat) a role that Ensafi has frequently played and is famous for.
Haji Firouz is the companion of Baba Norouz, a fictional figure in Iranian folklore. Together with Haji Firouz, Baba Norouz appears at the start of the Iranian New Year or during spring.
The play is an account of a meeting between the two fictional characters and a child. The child keeps asking questions about Norouz. The questions are answered by Baba Norouz and Haji Firouz in a series of songs and narration of stories.
With plenty of experience in such roles, Ensafi plays the role of Haji Firouz. His son Amir Mohammad is also in the cast.
Other actors include Forough Yazdan, Tina Norouzi, Reza Me'raji, Noushin Nami, Fereshteh Azami and Ahmad Ahesteh.
With the décor designed by Sasan Farhadpour and costumes and puppets created by Forough Yazdan, the play is choreographed by Hamed Nasrabadian.
Shahrzad Theater is located at the intersection of Razi and Neauphle-le-Chateau streets in central Tehran.
