Tarabnameh by Bahram Beyzaie

Bahram Beyzaie's new play Tarabnameh was performed in two parts to nearly sold-out audiences. A cast of 37 actors, more than a year of rehearsals, and hundreds of hand-made costumes!

Tarabnameh has its genealogy in the tradition of Takhte-Hozi plays—a tradition of popular plays, combinining comedy and music, dance and poetry. Centuries of despotism have rendered this form bereft of content. In Tarabnameh, a play with a cast of thirty-seven actors, this ancient comic genre keeps its joyous ambiance but takes on new form and meaning, underscoring the possibilities of once forgotten traditions becoming rich, robust, and lively modern forms of theater.

Photos by Vahid Zamani. Copyright held by Iranian Studies Program.

Part 1: March, 2016

Part 2: October 2016

Musicians play in a scene from Tarabnameh