7Berkeh – Sara Eskandari: Autumn in the south of Fars is traditionally the high season of theater, with many groups staging their latest productions in Khonj, Evaz, Gerash, Lar, Lamerd, Bastak, and other cities.
Theater is one of the few art forms that breathes and thinks in real time. Unlike a painting that stays still or a poem that rests on paper, theater lives through people — their voices, movements, and silences. It becomes a shared language between stage and audience, a moment when art and life collide. Perhaps that is why, for centuries, theater has remained a profound medium for expressing who we are and for learning what it means to be human.
Theater as a Reflection of Culture
Every performance carries the fingerprints of its culture. The way a character greets another, the rhythm of speech, gestures, even pauses — all are shaped by the values, fears, and dreams of a society. In that sense, the stage is not a mirror that flatters; it is a mirror that reveals.
For example, the Iranian production “۱۱۳ Minutes After Sunset”, a translation of “Selling Kabul” directed by Ali Fakhri, was created by Saba Theater Group of Gerash. This adaptation of Sylvia Khouri’s compelling drama brought Afghan experiences to an Iranian stage. The gestures, language, and storytelling captured cultural nuances and social struggles, resonating deeply with local audiences while reflecting universal human emotions. This illustrates how theater can be both rooted in a specific place and speak to the world at large. The story’s tension and emotional depth compel viewers to see lives very different from their own, yet feel the shared human struggles. Theater doesn’t just tell a story; it changes how we carry our own.
The Stage as a Classroom Without Walls
Theater teaches empathy, awareness and imagination in ways no textbook can. When actors step into another person’s life, they practice understanding. When students perform in school plays, they learn to listen, respond, and cooperate — acquiring the skills of citizenship in the purest sense.
In many Iranian schools and community programs, local theater projects serve this purpose. Workshops inspired by social issues help children explore identity, communication, and teamwork. Theater educates not by instruction, but by immersion — inviting participants to live, for a moment, as someone else.
This is what is happening these nights in Evaz. The new production of Neil Simons “The Good Doctor” by Shaneh Group is marked with one outstanding characteristic: the roles are all performed by young participants of a theater workshop held by Sahneh theater group. What can be a more effective way in maintaining the perpetuity of this art form?
A Bridge Between Cultures
There is something sacred about the moment when the lights go down and silence fills the room. The audience holds its breath, waiting. Then, with the first word or movement, another world opens. In that suspended space, the boundary between performer and spectator dissolves. Both sides learn from each other — one through expression, the other through recognition.
In a world divided by language, belief, or politics, theater builds bridges where words alone fail. An Iranian director performing Beckett in Tehran, a Japanese adaptation of Hamlet, or a community play in a small village — all reflect a universal human desire: to understand and be understood. Theater becomes a space for cultural dialogue, where identity is both affirmed and questioned. It reminds us that cultures are not walls, but windows.
“Expose” The latest production of Rokh theater groups in Lar, is a brilliant showcase of this need for communication and dialogue. Bringing the harsh realities of the metropolis into the city of Lar, the theater group use the medium of theater to show how these issues are getting more and more interwoven into the everyday lives of people everywhere.
Conclusion: The Living Art
Theater is a living art — fragile, fleeting, and deeply human. It disappears the moment it ends, yet leaves behind something indelible: a shared memory, a quiet thought, a changed perception. In its most genuine form, theater is both expression and education; both mirror and movement.
Perhaps that is why, even in an age of screens and algorithms, people still gather in small rooms under dim lights, to watch others become stories. In watching the actors, we rediscover ourselves — not as isolated beings, but as a collective soul still capable of empathy, imagination, and change.