Unfortunately, in our artistic environment, drama was born underdeveloped from the beginning. In other words, our plays have either been absurd drama, such as ru-howzi plays [plays that are performed around a little pool, called "houz,” inside a house] or plays that oppose a particular phenomenon without having clear direction. Also, our type of drama uses vague and ambiguous language. Some think that plays should only use ambiguous, symbolic, and mysterious words, but this is not always the case. Drama calls for actual acting, on the stage, before a live audience. Contrary to cinema and films, where you watch actors on a screen, in a theatre you can actually feel the emotions of actors. You hear, from them, what they have to say. There can be many constructive elements in theatre arts or student drama. Artistic groups should contemplate over how to express true Islamic concepts through theatrical performance.
Many years ago -- perhaps 20 years ago -- a play was performed for us in this very same Hussainiyah. It was about Ayyub [Job] the Prophet (as) and it went on for a while. It was one or two hours long. When the play ended, I went up to the director and said, "I have read the story of Ayyub, maybe a hundred times in the Holy Quran, but I had not understood it from the Holy Quran -- during all this time -- in the way I understood it from your theatrical performance." Is this insignificant?
Statement made by Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with students on Jul 11, 2015
