Spare Iranian theatre brims with emotion

AMONG all the productions in this year's Singapore International Arts Festival, Iranian play Amid the Clouds goes to the top of the list for the most austere and restrained piece, but one that was steeped in poignancy and meaning.

In fact, the most dramatic "action" on stage was right at the beginning, when the male and female protagonists first introduced themselves to the audience in monologues, while submerged in tanks of water. From there, it was the poetry of the text that propelled the story of Imour and Zina, two Iranian exiles who leave their homelands, each carrying their own tragic tales with them, in search of greener pastures.

With only three tanks of water on stage - and spotlights - there was nothing else but the actors and words. But what a spell playwright and director Amir Reza Koohestani of the Mehr Theatre group wove over the audience, with the melodic Persian spoken, the use of fantasy intertwined with reality, and the rich symbolism of water that gives and takes away lives, that bridges and also separates.