In the semi-darkness, we hear news clips of street protests erupting in Iran. One clip speaks of “the first death sentence against a protester.” A further voice explains this “all started with Mahsa Amini being arrested for not wearing her headdress correctly and later beaten to death.”
Parisa, dressed in a white coat, stands defiantly front of stage, her eyes bright with passionate defiance as she speaks of setting her hijab on fire, of it threatening to consume her.
Her courage has cost her dearly. “Every inch of me is covered in scars.” What she is doing will not be tolerated, but fiercely she declares, “I will be reborn from the ashes.” Accompanied by a piano, she sings “A Fire Ignites”. Briefly, the stage darkens.
The light then directs our attention to the side of the stage where Maryam, a young woman in a green casual top, sits at a table covered in a white cloth upon which rests a teapot and cup. Conversationally, she describes Parisa as her best friend “Who I love more than a best friend.”
Maryam has been told that she looks like a lesbian and that she must marry a man. She knows that if she came out, it would result in lashings and execution. “I love Iran… I’m grateful I’ve only been beaten a few times.” Yet it would be so good to live in another place where “no one would care if I wore a hijab.”
Rising from her seat with an expression of pain on her face, she dances alone as she imagines the rest of her life alone.
The scene switches back to Parisa, who describes how she feels about Maryam, admitting, “I know I dream too big, but she doesn’t dream at all.” For her, the cruelty of Iran isn’t just a matter of its persecution of a woman’s sexual choices; it is about its very attitude to women.
Again the scene changes, this time to let us glimpse Parisa’s mother Yasaman, who recalls her daughter’s brilliant writing and with sadness also remembers the father saying it was a “shame she’s born a girl. Her talent is wasted.”
In an extraordinarily moving and inspiring finish to the show, we return to the opening scene of Parisa dressed in a white coat, urging a change in the world.
This show is a remarkable combination of fine writing, which grabs your attention with its engaging naturalistic style, along with the stunning versatile acting of Tara Tedjarati, who plays all the characters as she takes us through the troubled world of women’s oppression in Iran.
It will be a long time before I forget the fierce expression in her eyes as she urged the world to change.