Bahram Beyzaie's "Jana and Baladoor" Now Streaming!

In celebration of Norooz/Nowruz (Persian New Year), the recordings of Bahram Beyzaie's historic play Jana and Baladoor is now available to stream via the Stanford Iranian Studies YouTube channel. The play was sponsored by the Stanford Iranian Studies Program in 2012 and is part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts. The play was performed in Persian at Stanford University and now has Persian captions as well as English translation subtitles. 

Jana and Baladoor: A Play in Shadows by Bahram Beyzaie

In a panorama as majestic as life itself, Iran's foremost playwright and director Bahram Beyzaie brings to the stage a magical combination of poetry and puppets, music and myth. In this ground-breaking performance of Jana and Baladoor, Professor Beyzaie recounts the drama of a world dominated by dark demons, and the heroic battles of four mythic siblings—representing the four elements of air, water, earth and fire—and their battles to redeem and re-enchant the world. Acclaimed Iranian artists Mojdeh Shamsaie and Mohsen Namjoo recite the story, accompanied by music; shadow figures bring the narrative to life.

Since at least the 6th century (12th century AD), the growth and development of shadow plays as an art form has come to a halt with religious zeal and prejudice deeming it heretical, causing it to fade into nigh obscurity. Jana and Baladoor was a historic revival of an old tradition.

A new video released by Professor Beyzaie also goes behind the curtain to show the making of Jana and Baladoor in 2012. 

The performance and these videos were made possible by the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts with generous support from Bita Daryabari, Shidan and Mehran Taslimi, and Hamid and Christina Moghadam, among others.