TEHRAN – The Khodkar-e Asemani, a theatrical group, performed a show on Thursday for children with cancer at the Mahak charity hospital and rehabilitation center in Tehran.

The Mahak hospital itself has an interesting story of how it all came about. But today, it is equipped to accommodate up to 120 children, each accompanied by a family member.

Children at Mahak normally have lunch at noon and an hour later they hit the playroom, a dreamland fairy room filled with all sorts of toys, games and adventure, for three hours.

On that particular day, right after their playtime, the sick children were all on their teeny-tiny chairs ready to watch the performance with their caregivers.

The director of the theatrical show, Mehdi Bagheri along with his colleague Nasrin Yasin, put up a good show on teaching little passengers ‘road rules and safety’.

The lessons, which came out in a Siah-Bazi play were about instructing kids walking near traffic, crossing streets, and intersections.

Siah-Bazi, which literally translates to “playing black”, is a type of Iranian folk performing art that features a blackface, mischievous and forthright harlequin that does improvisations to stir laughter.  It goes back to antiquity.

Wearing a red outfit and black-face paint, Bagheri takes on a clown-like role who struggles to learn the rules of the streets through humor.

Played by Yasin in a long blue chador, Nan-e Sarma was the old wise woman, teaching Bagheri patiently to learn the traffic rules.  

Nan-e Sarma or Grandma Frost, a mythical character in the Iranian folklore, is the wife of Amou Noruz who is a fictional figure and appears annually at the beginning of spring.

The 30-minute entertaining and informative show uplifted and cheered up the children so much so that they called for a replay.

Khodkar-e Asemani group knew full-well they had done it once again.

Feeling proud to have reached their objective which was touching the lives of many kids with cancer and their families and introducing smile and laughter back to their lives even for a brief time, the group members left the hospital until next time and next performance.

MRG/MG