LOOKING AT TAZIEH

Tazieh is a highly stylised Shia lament for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed, who was killed in 680. It existed in a simple form around Persian villages from the 10th century. From the 16th century onwards when Persia became a Shia Islamic state it was officially recognised and was performed each year in purpose built takias (stadia) as an act of religious remembrance.
At the Festival performance of Looking at Tazieh, the Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami presents us with an altar-like triptych of three screens – two large black and white screens framing a much smaller coloured screen. The small screen shows a Tazieh performance, the two large screens show the watching audience – women on one side, men on the other. Their faces, reactions and emotions are what are important: to us the actual performance will not carry so much resonance, and there are no surtitles to include us in the poetry of what is being declaimed. But there is certainly emotion among the watching audience. Men and women weep, breasts are beaten, faces are covered. And yet among all the emotion, some look bored, some smoke, some are chewing. Some youths look almost cynical; women and the elderly seem most moved. It is high drama in a country which does not encourage theatre.
Anyone who has witnessed the Semana Santa celebrations in Andalucia will be struck by how much they can resembles Tazieh.. There is the same mournful music: trumpet laments and the beating of drums, the same fado type singing. The underlying theme is similar – a great religious leader is being put to death and the onlookers mourn.
Is this good theatre? On one level, yes. Yet surprisingly there was no applause at the end of the piece. The audience had sat on the floor on cushions for over an hour, and true to form for our society, some had snaffled three cushions while others had none. Perhaps the audience were stunned, perhaps they were merely numb. It had been engrossing up to a point, but like most religious ceremonies it did have its longeurs. As they say – interesting.