From Karbala to New York City – Taziyeh on the Move

Description

Nineteenth-century traveler to Iran and famous man of letters, Count de
Gobineau, was fascinated with the Shiite Iranian passion play called ta
ziyeh. So
was his contemporary Matthew Arnold, the great English poet and writer, though
he never saw an actual ta
ziyeh performed. So too such giants of the th-century
theatre as Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski. They were all intrigued by the form
of ta
ziyeh production, which was different from anything else. But none of them
would ever have imagined that ta
ziyeh could leave its native environment, which
is steeped in popular Shiite rituals and beliefs, and be successfully performed in
the West. Yet it happened. This volume traces ta
ziyeh from its origins in Karbala
in Iraq through its development as a serious dramatic form in Iran, its adaptation
in Lebanon, India, and the Caribbean, and its powerful debut on Western stages,
culminating in a  performance at Lincoln Center in New York City. By coincidence, Karbala has become one of the major preoccupations of the Western
media since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March . An examination of ta
ziyeh reveals many of the historical, cultural, religious, and political paradigms that
have made Karbala the touchstone for Shiite Muslims everywhere