TEHRAN – The Fajr Regions Theater Festival resumed activities in Kermanshah on Wednesday after a nine-year hiatus.

This festival is a prelude to the Fajr International Theater Festival to select plays for the event, which is organized every year in late January as part of numerous celebrations for the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The organizers of the Fajr festival shut down the Fajr Regions Theater Festival nine years ago to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Seventeen plays from the provinces of East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardebil, Zanjan, Kordestan, Ilam, Qazvin, Hamedan, Khuzestan and Kermanshah are competing in the first round of this year’s Fajr Regions Theater Festival, which will run until December 31.      

Three rounds of the festival will be held in Shiraz, Bushehr and Sari to select plays from other provinces.

After the regions festival was closed down, troupes in the provinces had to send a video of their performances to the Fajr festival and a selecting board would pick the entries to the competition.

The decision to resume organizing the regions festival has been welcomed by theater troupes across the country.

“The return of the festival provides an opportunity for troupes from different provinces to interact directly with each other and helps improve their performances,” director Asghar Mohammadi told the Persian service of IRNA on Wednesday.

His troupe from Zanjan is competing in the festival with the play “Curse on You! Saeideh”.

He called the previous method to select entries for the Fajr International Theater Festival inept and said, “The method lowered the festival expenses, but it didn’t produce positive results.”

“The resumption of the festival provides the chance for the troupe to perform directly for the jury, and they may exchange views and ideas with groups from other provinces during the event,” he noted.

“Curse on You! Saeideh” is a comedy-drama that follows Khalil Halabi, a drug addict who is being kept in a mental center due to a very unhappy childhood. He begins writing a memoir and this task causes a positive event in his life.

“This play shows how micro-cultures begin to turn into traditions nationwide and, as a psychodrama, focuses on people’s status and identity,” Mohammadi explained.

Written by Farhad Naqdali, the play has previously been performed by several troupes over the past few years.

Photo: A poster for the 27th Fajr Regions Theater Festival.

MMS/YAW