PRODUCTION / September 2025

The Sky Never Came Down

role

Director

date

September 2025

venue

Tehran, Iran

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph

About the production

“The Sky Never Came Down” is a documentary Ta’ziyeh about Iranian women’s struggle for the right to vote. It was performed unofficially in Tehran in September 2025. The production sought to liberate Ta’ziyeh from the hegemony of conventional religious subjects and, by revisiting the unofficial and suppressed histories of the Iranian women’s movement, aimed to reinterpret the historical event of June 5, 1963 (15 Khordad 1342)—often recognized as the first spark of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. In the official historical construct of that day, it is rarely acknowledged that the reactionary uprising of the clerics was, in fact, a protest against granting Iranian women the right to vote.

In this project, the traditional Ta’ziyeh form was merged with documentary theater techniques and postdramatic elements. The documentary materials—from interviews, to speeches, and the secret police reports—were mostly rewritten in poetic forms, such as Bahr-e tavil (a type of Persian verse). So, language became a performative element that shaped the atmosphere of the piece.

In response to the historical exclusion of female performers from the official stage of Ta’ziyeh, all the performers in this production were women. Accordingly, the traditional Ta’ziyeh costumes were reinterpreted and redesigned.

As the director, I collaborated with the playwright on the historical research and the narrative structure. After training the actors in classical Persian vocal modes (dastgāh singing) and designing the vocal and musical score with the instrumentalists, I led the creative process to stage the script.

The Ta’ziyeh performance ends with a collective mourning in which everyone participates. In our production, this mourning gradually transformed into a joyous atmosphere, created through the dance-like movements of performers while playing percussion and wind instruments. The spectators were welcomed to participate in the celebration of the women’s victory.

Production credits

Director: Ramtin Sadeghinezhad
Playwright: Zahra Mirmohamadali
Assistant Director: Nima Shahbazi
Performers: Melina Zaki, Nazanin Houshmand, Anahita Khademi, Fatemeh Salehian
Musicians: Anahita Talebi (Drums), Yekta Borjasi (Trumpet)
Costume Designer: Zahra Mirmohamadali
Poster Designer: Arian Zamani

Watch

Watch performance

Watch translated excerpt

Performance photographs

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 2

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 3

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 4

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 5

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 6

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The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 8

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 9

The Sky Never Came Down — production photograph 10