TEHRAN – Director Behruz Gharibpur is restaging the Ashura opera puppet show with his Aran Theater Troupe at Vahdat Hall in Tehran.The group has performed the opera puppet show for three nights since August 10, but the performances will continue for six additional nights due to popular demand. Gharibpur managed to obtain cultural officials’ approval to stage the Ashura opera puppet for the first time in 2007.He promised to design and perform the opera in such a way that it doesn’t conflict with religious beliefs or the point of view of the ulama.Gharibpur has restaged the opera every year during Muharram since 2007.The opera puppet show depicts the uprising of Imam Hussein (AS) and his companions against the Umayyad dynasty on Ashura, the tenth day of the month of Muharram on the lunar calendar, the day upon which the Imam and his followers were martyred in Karbala in 680 CE.Photo: The Aran Theater Troupe performs the Ashura opera puppet show at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on August 12, 2022.

(ISNA/Sara Sabzi) MMS/YAW