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An Iranian Passion Play: ‘Taziyeh’ in History and Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Reza Ale-Mohammed
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Abstract

Theatre of a kind familiar to western audiences can be found in present-day Tehran – as Clive Barker's contribution to the ‘Reports and Announcements’ section later in this issue testifies. But Iran also has a traditional performing mode little known in the West – the Taziyeh, first performed in Britain at the Islamic Cultural Centre in London, and elsewhere, during April 2000. Taziyeh is a passion play, which like its medieval Christian antecedents remains inextricably linked with its religious purpose – the commemoration of the martyrdom of the third Imam of the Shi'ite Muslims, Ali Hussein, and his family in the desert of Kerbala. This relationship sustains a dramaturgy which diverges significantly from western forms, and seems at times almost contradictory – with actors who clearly know their parts by heart none the less required to read them from their scripts, to sustain both the immediacy and the spiritual truth of the performance. In this account of the origins, development, and present state of the Taziyeh, Reza Ale-Mohammed resolves such contradictions through an analysis of the play's distinctive quality, its performance, and its relationship with the audiences it reaches and the faith it expresses. Reza Ale-Mohammed recently completed his doctorate on the Taziyeh at the University of Warwick.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 2001 , pp. 54 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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References

Notes and References

1. Beizai, Bahram, A Study on Iranian Theatre (Tehran, 1965), p. 144Google Scholar.

2. Turner, Victor, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; and The Ritual Process (Chicago: Aldine, 1969).

3. Beeman, William O., ‘Cultural Dimensions of Performance Conventions in Iranian Taziyeh’, in Taziyeh: Ritual, and Drama in Iran, ed, Chelkowski, Peter. J. (New York, 1979), p. 25Google Scholar.

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5. Chelkowski, Peter, Taziyeh: Indigenous Avant-Garde Theatre of Iran (Tehran: NIRT Publications, 1975), p. 4Google Scholar.

6. Mehdi Forough, A Comparative Study of Abraham's Sacrifice in Persian Passion Play and Western Mystery Play (Tehran, n.d.) p. 4,44.

7. Quoted in M. Baktash, ‘Taziyeh and Its Philosophy’, in Taziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, op. cit, p. 105.

8. Asgar, Jalal, A Historical Study of the Origins of the Persian Passion Plays, dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School, University of Southern California, 1963, p. 228–9Google Scholar. See also Le Bruyn, Cornelius, Travels into Muscovy, Persia, and Part of the East-Indias (London: A. Bertesworth and Co., 1737), p. 215–16Google Scholar.

9. P. Chelkowski, ‘Bibliographical Spectrum’, in Taziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, op. cit., p. 257.

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11. Quoted in Arnold, Matthew, Essay in Criticism (London: Macmillan, 1932), chapter on ‘A Persian Passion Play’, p. 239–40Google Scholar.

12. Quoted in Andrzej Wirth, ‘Semiological Aspects of Taziyeh’, Taziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, op. cit., p. 38.

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15. Peter J. Chelkowski, op. cit., p. 17.

16. Quoted in And, Metin, ‘Taziyeh: Tragedy in Islam, its Conventional and Ritualistic Elements, its Dramatic Values with Reference to Greek Tragedy, and its Significance for the Modern Theatre’, International Theatre Year Book, 1970, p. 39Google Scholar.

17. Andrzej Wirth, op. cit., p. 35.

18. The dominant translator of Taziyeh is Sir Henry Pelly, who translated a host of manuscripts in the middle of the nineteenth century. Pelly's translations are time- and culture-bound and say more about English poetry than Iranian religious drama. In this article more modern translations have been used in examples.

19. Mirza Mohammed Taqi was a well-known Taziyeh producer who lived in the middle of the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah. He gave performances in Tehran and the Tekiyeh Dowlat theatre between the years 1275 and 1290. See A. H. Shahidi. op. cit., p. 60.

20. Malekpour, Jamshid, Persian Passion Play (University of Tehran, 1987), p. 24Google Scholar.

21. By far the largest collection of Taziyeh scripts was assembled by Enrico Ceruli at the bidding of the Vatican, in whose library they are now lodged.

22. Anassory, Jaber, translation of Elenco di drammi religiosi persiani, Fondo Mss. Vaticanicerulli (Tehran: Gostaresh-e Honar Publications, 1989), p. 22Google Scholar.

23. Quoted in Khaleghi, Rouhollah, The Story of Iranian Music (Tehran, 1974), p. 332Google Scholar.

24. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. IX, p. 299.

25. A. Shahidi, op. cit., p. 41.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid., p. 44.

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29. Goran, Hiva, Kosheshhay Na Farjam (Tragic Effort) (Tehran: Aghah Publishers, 1979), p. 77Google Scholar.