Platform

Issue No. 1 — Summer 2026

• A Visual and Written Platform for Independent and Underground Theatre in Iran

Where does underground theatre take place? Where has it come from, what forms has it taken, and how has it become one of the living possibilities of theatre in Iran after the Woman, Life, Freedom movement?

The first issue of Platform brings together eleven essays that approach some of these questions from different directions. The issue moves from the history of unofficial theatre in Iran, from the Constitutional Revolution to the present, to questions of independent, underground, alternative, and unconventional theatre. It considers censorship and disrupted aesthetics, the body and the experience of women dancers, political imagination and utopia, and the relationship between evil and the redemption of the audience.

The issue also turns to the alternative theatre movement in Japan in the 1960s, while a section titled Nonsense moves through satire, theatre-related games and divination, and a series of suggestions for further reading and exploration.

Platform brings together different voices, perspectives, and notes on underground theatre, emerging from the experiences of people who have lived with it, thought about it, and continue to see it as a question.

The publication grew out of a year of research and discussion by a new generation of theatre artists working within Saye Theatre Group’s Theatre Studies initiative. The volume is an attempt to put contemporary underground theatre in Iran into conversation with its histories, its practices, and the questions surrounding its present forms.

Contents

01. The Elephant in the Dark
A Brief History of Unofficial Theatre in Iran (1906–1980)
Erfan FallahAkbari

02. Alternative / Underground / Independent / Unconventional Theatre
A Brief History of Unofficial Theatre in Iran (1980s–September 2022)
Mahsa Sheikhi

03. The Dancing Woman / Reproducing Order
Six Narratives Including Six Iranian Women Dancers
Tara Qobadi

04. Censorship and the Aesthetics of Disruption
Two Regimes of Presence: Saedi’s Gol-e Kalat and Na’lbandian’s Poof
Mahsa Mokhtarpour

05. Political Imagination as Performance
Hodjat Salimi

06. How Can Evil Redeem the Audience?
Mahsa Beygverdi

07. An Essay on Alternative Theatre in Japan during the 1960s
Maryam Yari

08. Theatre, Life, Utopia, and Pluralism in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Mohammad Karambeigi

09. The Hegemony of the Lone Artist
Or Why I’m Not Milad Bahari
Milad Bahari

10. How Long Do Days Remain?
Narges Sadeghian

11. Nonsense
Azadeh Mardani & Amirhossein Sharifi

Publication Information

Publication: Platform
Issue: No. 1
Date: Summer 2026
Pages: 609
Language: Persian
Published by: Saye Theatre Group

Credits

Project Directors: Mehdi Mashhour, Sara Rasoulinejad
Graphic & Art Director: Ramin Kezin
Layout: Narges Sadeghian
Editors: Sahar Jahantasht, Fatemeh Karami
Executive Coordinator: Narges Sadeghian
With Contributions From: Azadeh Mardani, Amirhossein Sharifi