The Impact of Increased Audiences on the Quality of Iranian Theater

Last week, the 14th festival of the Iranian Critics and Theater Writers Association was held. In this festival, the winners of a year of Iranian theater from the critics' perspective were introduced. The plays 'And Behold, Man' directed by Mohammad Rezaei Rad, 'Ham-Havaei' directed by Afsaneh Mahian, and 'The Quiet Sound of Snow' directed by Jaber Ramazani were introduced as the best works of Iranian theater in 1393 (2014). This festival, in addition to introducing the winners of Iranian theater, served as a platform for expressing critical opinions about the current state of the art of theater in Iran. These opinions mainly indicate a decline in the quality of Iranian theater in recent years. These opinions contradict another viewpoint that claims that with the expansion of theater audiences, Iranian theater has become more creative than other arts in recent years. Farzaneh Ebrahimizadeh, a theater journalist who was one of the winners of this festival, rejects this view, stating that Iranian theater, despite its expanded audience, has experienced a decline in quality: 'What has happened in the last four or five years is that with the opening of theaters outside the city center, theater has geographically spread in Tehran and has gone somewhat beyond the city center. Alongside this, the economic aspect of theater has also gained importance in recent years, and I believe this has made the issue of creativity in theater inaccurate. Because many theater practitioners do a lot of activities to ensure their work sells and they can gain economic benefits from theater, one of these activities is bringing well-known cinema figures to theater. This trend initially started with the works of Iran Shahr Theater. After that, the issue of bringing sponsors to theater has become problematic. These factors have somewhat taken theater away from being a pure art form and led it towards a type of performance that somewhat mocks the theater of Lalehzar.' Despite criticisms of the quality level of Iranian theater, the increase in the financial cycle of theater in recent years is an undeniable fact based on existing statistics. This has led some observers to suggest that a new class has been added to the audience of theater. Farzaneh Ebrahimizadeh holds this belief regarding the validity of this opinion: 'The middle class of theatergoers still watches the theater they used to follow, but in my opinion, with lower quality. You now see works on stage at the City Theater that we might not have seen in the past. The taste of the theater audience has changed somewhat. In the last two or three months, a performance was staged at the Vahdat Hall that had a ticket price of one hundred thousand tomans, and all its actors were from cinema. The middle-class audience cannot normally afford a one hundred thousand tomans or even fifty thousand tomans ticket for theater. This is a contradiction I am pointing out. When a director at Iran Shahr Theater sees that a low-quality work is sold for a one hundred thousand tomans ticket and people come to see it, instead of thinking about the quality of the work, they will certainly think about the quantity of the work and how to fill the hall.' Ms. Ebrahimizadeh won the award for Best Interview at the Critics and Writers Festival for her conversation with Mohammad Charmshir, a well-known figure of the new generation of theater after the Iranian revolution. She discusses the conditions of this generation and their recent works: 'Unfortunately, part of these directors are either not working or their works are facing problems. However, I feel that this generation will soon find its way. But I do not know when this will happen. As Mr. Charmshir said in that interview, perhaps some people have entered the game who want to change the rules of the game, and if they work in theater for a while, they might also find their way, and we will again witness theaters that meet our standards.' Babak Ghafouri Azar is a producer at Radio Farda and follows developments in the cinema and theater sectors. He has also published various investigative reports on events during the first decade of the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Babak Ghafouri Azar began journalism in Iran in 2001.